Volare Space Robotics competition.

We are triyng to entry on the first Volare Space Robotics competition. This is a competition which combines both a free use of designing and a gaming structure. For the ones we can say it allows us to think completely by ourselves and innovate in a lot of ways.

The competition consists on designing and builiding a robot that could be able to upload and unload cargo in two diferent areas. So it should be able to make its own way from one place to anothe of a low scale model of the International Space Station (ISS). On the way it must deal with some obstacles, such as a little elevated plataform or a simulating astronaut.

In orther to make it more challenging, the orders must be given wirelessly and it must be controlled by the four cameras the competition places in the model.

The aim of the competition is to transport as much cargo as it can in a limit of time of five minutes. It is also a chief point how safelly the cargo is placed in the unloading area.

It is a competition available to young students from ages 11- 19. Divided in categories.

To finalice it should be sayed to that creating a stylish good looking robot also gives you extra points, so the design gains a lot of weight. Here is a explaining video:

Hey! We are back!

It has been a while since the last tiem we actually wrote anything in our blog. However, we are back to bussines to prepare for our next target: the Volare Space Robotics competition.

Here is a little summ up video to show you how we did on the last CanSat competition.

Our secondary mission and the I2C protocol

Our secondary mission, as we have sayed preveously in our blog, consists on making a 3D map of the zone where it lands. In orther to do so, we have decided to separate the two cameras from each other about  24 centimeters. A new challenge was encountered: how to separate them. After a lot of thinking and trying a wide range of possibilities (using the force of the parachute, using every kind of little motors...), we agreed to use a linear actuator to separate them. Using a quite simple mechanism, we are able to separate the cameras the way we want to.

The I2C protocol is a way to transmit data that allows us to connect up to 128 devices. With a velocity of about 100 Kilobytes per second in its standar mode, the protocol allows us to connect multiple eslave devices using only three pins of the arduino. As how we have already sayed, the protocol I2C only requires three lines: two for the data transmision, the SDA (data transmision) and SCL (clock); and another one to ground GND.
We are using  three sensors in our CanSat: The eeprom, acelerometer and magnetometer sensor and the pressure and temperature sensor.

Our uniform

We finally have a uniform to wear in the competition! It has not been that easy to finally have all the stickers attached to the uniform (The manufacturing company wanted us to give the prototypes in one program we did not had).

Despite the difficulties and the short period of time we had to design it. We have two polo shirts and a windstopper. It looks quite good, and we are really proud of the final product.

We are pretty greatfull to the companies ASTRIUM (that has putted almost all the budget necesary to afford the costumes), and the wearing company GOCCO, it has put one of the two polo shirts.

The other secondary missions

The team from Austria is composed by this people: Ludwig Fichtinger (team leader), Michael Heilingbrunner (programming and marketing), Gerald Hofmarcher (electronics and programming), Anton Hoessl (team leader, database connections), Tobias Kain (programming and antenna design), Dustin Kinast (database connections, marketing and programming), Lukas Kirchner (software development), Manuel Krenn (electronics and hardware design), Benjamin Sirninger (antenna design, programming), Robert Skawinski (electronics and programming). From Höhere Technische Lehranstalt für Informationstechnologie, Ybbs an der Donau.
The teacher carrying out this project would be Stefan Zauner.
Yes we CanSat! Teams secondary mission consists on measuring the ultraviolet radiation.


Belgiums team is the one called DJ AXUAL Tation, and it is composed by: Dina El Haddouti and Lieze Vanderstappen (primary experiment, parachute design and parachute-cansat connection systems), Jelle Deseure (Power systems and sensors), Aurélie Finders-Binje (camera system and cansat integration), Xavier Deraet and Tom Bettens (Stabilization and steering systems). From Sint Pieterscollege Jette & Stedelijke Humaniora Dilsen School.

The teachers that organize this project are Erik de Schrijver and Dirk Geeroms. The secondary mission of this team is to stabilize the CanSat during the descent.

The members of the Czech Republic CanSat project are:  Martin Bilek, Petr Bartos, Patrik Bachan, Radovan Blazek. And their secondary mission will be measuring some variables during the descent.
The teachers of this team are Vladimir Vana (Lead), Martin Peter (Deputy Lead), Bronislava Khalegova (Deputy Lead).

Another team is the one composed by Sarah Strøm, Cille Pedersen, Marie Petersen, Tobias Hangel, Jesper Hulgard, Kristoffer Nielsen, Simon Bach, Lars Ravn and Cecilie Jensen. They are the SNoVIR team. The mission of this team is doing some atmospherical analysis.



The team SatElite is the french project. Laurent Bertin (Team leader, data analysis),  Benjamin Heder (Sensors, sponsoring),  Maxime Richet (Software, communication),  Charles Chevalier (Hardware, telemetry),  Lucas Goulinet (Video transmition, webmaster),  Hosni Issaoui (Parachute, mechanical integration), whit their teacher Mr. François Belly, from High school  Alfred Kastler in Talence, are going to calculate their CanSats height by taking measurments with a camera.

The sixth CanSat I'm going to talk about is the greeks project called Icaromenippus 3D. And, as their own name indicates, they are planning to reconstruct a 3D map of tha land it flies over. It is composed by Georgios Chatzellis (structure/data analysis), Ilias Psyroukis (outreach/software), Ilias Theodoridis (structure/3D mapping/software), Efstratios Tsirtsis (electronics/software), Ioannis Myrsinias (electronics/structure), Aleksandros Alamanellis Zisimopoylos (structure/electronics), Efstratios Makris (structure/electronics), Georgios Polychronis (structure/electronics), Myrsini Svorou (structure/3D mapping), Eleni Gavriilatou (structure/electronics). And thier teacher George Kontellis.

Next is The Flying Dutchan Team is going to take over the measurement of the light intensity. it is formed with Alexander Gamble and Stephen Markham (Programming, data collection and data analysis); Brian Kenyon, Carsten Spencer and Nikita Sozonov (Sensors, circuit boards and after landing retrieval system); Stefanie van der Zee, Nadine van der Laan, Jyona Jacobs, Natalia Weber, Nadia Merza (Parachute, testing, fundraising and publicity). Their teacher are Sanna Heinonen and Nina Markham.


The Norwegian team is named Navican, composed by: Imon Kvannli (electronics), Mari Elisabeth Olsen (components), Martin Lysvand Sollie (research and programming) and Ingrid Moe Træthaug (chassis/structure). Thier teacher is Ole Petter Håkegård. Their objective in this competition is to have a strong control while it falls.




Our neighbours (Potugal) are making The Secondary mission that we have chosen for our CanSat is to monitor the rising of sea levels. It is comoposed by: Mariana Moreira (Software); Mileida Costa (Software); Jerry Cunha (Electronics); Antero Moura (Electronics); João Melo (Structure).Their teacher is Juan Nolasco.

Andrea Popescu (structure/design, calculations/mathematics, data analysis),  Kriszta Rosu (public relations, structure/design, data analysis), Gellért-Pál Kovács (programme development, electronics, communication and sensors), Zsolt Pünkösti (programme development, electronics, web development for outreach) are the members of the romanian CanSat team (Bolyai). Their chief aim is analize the air polution, thanks to their teacher Mária Pető.

On DeLaCosa CanSat Team Logo

Today, after several proposals and attempts, we finally introduce our logo. As you can see in the image above, it is simple and direct, so that it can be easily recognizable. The font type clearly makes reference to the space, due to its resemblance to the famous NASA one. But what it makes the logo different is the image inside the "O". This is the compass rose that appears on the Atlantic Ocean in the original famous map Juan De La Cosa draw 500 years ago, since the name of our team lives up to him. The function of this rose is to display the orientation of the cardinal directions in the map.

Artículo en español

The Irish CanSat competition

To continue with the national CanSat competitions, we go back to an island nearby th previous country we talked about: Ireland.

In this country the competition was organised by the university of Limerik, and in it took part three schools from  all over the country: Castleroy College, Laurel Hill Secondary School and  Crescent School.

Castelroy College has done a great job with his CanSat. The team is composed by: Art O'Connor, Rory Cahill,  Martin Atkinson, Yassin Soulimane, Amira Mahdi, Richard Kanstevitch and Neil Sheadan. From what I can see from their blog, they made a lot of effort trying to satisfy an ambicious outreach. They posted every mmeting they had, and selected the next objectives. I havent done a lot of reseach on the team but I have been able to see that the distribution of the work had its impact on the blog: there are personal blogs which represent different parts of the job.

Laurel Hill Secondary School is a prestigious school on what CanSat is concerned. In the first European Cansat competition, they achieved the medal can which made them second. Here may be found an exhaustive review of the trip to Andenes on August 2010.





Finally, Crescent School made it to win this years competition, and it would represent the country in Norway. They have a blog and a great facebook page, in the one they describe their work and performance. I'm looking forward to meet them in this year competition. Their blog structure is similar to ours, so it is quite complicated to know who are the components of the team.