New space for exploration

“I taught here for 31 years, so I have a very close relationship with Carleton. I like to contribute whatever I can to further the advancement of research and teaching in this field,” says Jo Yung Wong of his gift to establish a laboratory for robotics, more specifically, terrestrial and extraterrestrial mobility, guidance and control. The Jo Yung Wong Laboratory will be housed in the engineering building, pictured under construction.

[Published in Ingenious, Spring 2011]

When the Mars Exploration Rover mission landed twin robots on the Red Planet in 2004, the challenges of navigating robots on another planet became immediately evident: an airbag that didn’t fully retract prevented Spirit from simply driving forward off the lander. Engineers told Spirit to turn in place and exit from a side ramp—a command that, due to the distance and line of sight between Earth and Mars, took more than a week to be realized.

Today, space systems engineers continue to design and improve navigation systems to enable rovers to make decisions and avoid hazards on their own—and eliminate the lengthy delays in data transmission.

“The goal is to remove human input from small decisions. An autonomous navigation algorithm makes the robot aware of its position in the environment so that it may determine the best route to a destination,” says Jesse Hiemstra, an undergraduate student working with Carleton researchers on the mobility system for the Kapvik microrover prototype for the Canadian Space Agency.

A student in the space systems design stream of the aerospace engineering program, he’ll soon have access to a state-of-the-art lab dedicated to projects like the rover that enable the exploration of space.

The Jo Yung Wong Laboratory for Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial Mobility, Guidance and Control, is the result of a generous $100,000-gift from Jo Yung Wong. He retired from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in 1999 after three decades at Carleton. Wong has dedicated his career to research and teaching in terrestrial vehicle mobility and is a former president of the International Society for Terrain-Vehicle Systems. In the last few years, his research has extended to extraterrestrial mobility in collaboration with NASA’s Glenn Research Center. Mobility is of critical importance to planetary exploration, which is exemplified by the immobilization Spirit in sandy soil on Mars, where its wheels had become embedded.

Wong hopes that the research to be conducted at the new laboratory will make Carleton a leader in mobility, guidance and control of Earth-bound off-road vehicles and extraterrestrial rovers.

“This lab will be unique and it is believed that no other university has established a similar facility,” says Wong. “Hopefully, it will become a centre of excellence in the field, nationally and internationally.”

This type of research comes at an important time for space exploration, when scientists and engineers are looking for ways to extend human missions to the moon and beyond, Wong says.

When he heard about the idea of establishing this specialized laboratory, he thought that it was a great idea and a worthwhile project to fund.

“The laboratory will link various groups together and eventually could build up significant research activities and teaching in these areas,” he says. “When we group together different faculty members, it can make a much greater impact.”

Part of the new engineering building, the laboratory will be open to faculty members, as well as graduate and undergraduate students like Hiemstra. The mobility, automation and robotics components of the current rover lab will be incorporated into the Jo Yung Wong Laboratory.

“Our current space was designed for teaching students to work with small satellites, which have to be kept in a clean environment. We need room to deploy robotic arms and mobile robots, which are dirtier and require open space to explore,” says Hiemstra. “Beyond extra room, the new lab will provide collaborative space and resources. We’ll be able to generate new ideas just by working in the same place.”

“Most of the time, spacecraft are intended to do what’s never been done before. Undertaking a new mission or refining a technology that’s never been used in space is a real motivation,” says Hiemstra. “We have the chance to create things that go on great adventures.”