DRIVING TECHNIQUES TO RESCUE THE ROVERS?
PUTTING THE ROVER IN REVERSE AND DRIVING ‘OUT’ OF THE SAND TRAP – This has worked before at other locations when both rovers have been ‘bogged’, but the soil here is very different and needs further analysis. It will be tried at some point. TURNING THE WHEELS – The wheels are capable of turning, but the maximum is 60deg. They did turn them 30deg and drove forward and made some slowly diminishing progress. Turning in place was tried (clockwise) but was unsuccessful. They might try to revisit this technique. DRIVING THE ROVER FORWARD (FAST) – A car or truck is not really representative of the type of motion they have on the rover. It is mostly a sequence of quasi-static moments rather than a dynamic event. TURNING THE WHEELS SLOWLY – the wheels already turn slowly. During each command they ramp up quickly to the steady speed that is required for the motion and just prior to the end they ramp down. Just like any servo motor. But during an arc, say to the left, the left side wheels move sl
