The Vamex team used the fall synergy meeting of the DLR Explorer initiatives to hold another productive working meeting, to present the progress of the individual sub-projects and partners, and to talk in more detail – in person – about the upcoming milestones. In conclusion, it can be said that all sub-projects have made very good progress, some exciting but solvable challenges remain and the team is still highly motivated.
The VaMEx Project recently held a three-day meeting to discuss network interface definitions and conduct initial testing phases among the participating project partners. This step was part of the ongoing collaborative process, focusing on establishing clear communication protocols and validating interface functionality through both dummy and partially implemented systems.
In these sessions, partners worked together to detail and agree upon the specifications that will enable their systems to interact effectively. The progress made includes not only the successful definition of network interfaces but also their trial through preliminary implementations, setting the stage for the forthcoming development work. This effort reflects the project’s steady advancement and the practical approach to achieving set objectives in a complex, multi-partner environment.
From 29.08. – 31.08. an internal RGE working meeting took place at the University of Bremen. Participants were members of the working group for Cognitive Neuroinformatics, the working group for High-Performance Visualization and DFKI. At times, Andre and Roland from the Computer Graphics and Virtual Reality working group were also present. Together, we clarified many questions on key areas such as SLAM, trajectory planning, VTB connection, mission control and the network architecture.
We see the first deployment of two ubiquity access points as a special milestone. This enabled us to send the first ROS2 messages via a network between the two access points.
Other highlights included a visit to the “MARS findet Stadt” exhibition at the Kulturkirche St. Stephani and dinner at the Pannekoekschip Admiral Nelson.
On February 16 and 17 the second SPEC meeting of VaMEx3 took place at the University of the Bundeswehr Munich. In total about 20 people participated in the meeting. Michael Schleiss presented a rough mission concept on Mars. The vision is to cover an area of approx. 14km x 14km on Mars to explore and map as well as to perform in smaller regions of interest such as drilling and sampling. to be carried out.
The key outcome of the SPEC meeting is a rough schedule of the VaMEx3 final presentation. Responsible project participants were also assigned to the major hardware and software components so that everyone should know what to do next. Furthermore, the project partners from Anavs, Aerospace Information Technology – University of Würzburg and TUM presented their swarm participants. In addition, the VaMEx3 Virtual Test Bed (VTB) was presented, which will be used to simulate the Mars mission. The VTB combines Unreal Engine 5 and ROS2 communication. In the near future, each project partner has to define requirements for the VTB in order to implement a simulation as realistic as possible.
Another important point was the presentation of possible test areas for the VaMEx3 demonstration. Volker Klein presented different areas in Germany, whereby these should have good accessibility and infrastructure. The focus is on regions of open pit coal mining due to the similarity to the surface of Mars. By fall 2023, further information will be obtained for the regions Garzweiler, Groitscher Dreieck, Lausitz and Eifel.
On September 30, 2022, the project partners came together for the kickoff meeting of VaMEx-3 at the German Space Agency at DLR in Bonn. The German Space Agency, the INVENT GmbH, the DSI Aerospace Technologie GmbH, the FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg, the University of the Federal Armed Forces Munich, the Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg, the Technical University Braunschweig, the Technical University Munich and various institutes of the University of Bremen were present.
