This vehicule has been designed to reinforce and complete the mobile robotics techniques already validated on a previous vehicule.

The new vehicule will be equipped with a trajectory generation and execution autonomy and will also be able to take stones samples, thanks to the following equipment :

• one inertial center giving the vehicule position and altitude at the frequency of 25 Hz,
• one turret with 2 rotation axles (site and azimuth), on top of a pole,
• one optical bench fasten on the turret, for stereovision perception around the vehicule, thanks to 2 CCD cameras,
• one embedded computer based on the PowerPC 604, associated to T805 Transputers, respectively dedicated to locomotion and handling. This system gives in real time the required processing power for the vehicule autonomy.

To meet the vehicule internal communication needs, HSP has developped a driver for the MEN M100 module interface board, in order to ensure the inputs/outputs through 4 transputer links :

• one communication link between the PowerPC and the locomotion transputer,
• one communication link between the PowerPC and the handling transputer,
• one communication link between the PowerPC and the stereovision bench for commands sending and images reading
• one link is put in reserve

The driver performances allow the transfert of a stereo image pair (350 KB) between the bench and the computer, in 1 seconde.