Avalanche Search and Rescue

Recent seismic activity on Mars has triggered an avalanche burying one of our astronauts. The surrounding slope and snow is unstable, and a rover has been sent out to help. The rover is tasked to uncover the astronaut and bring them back to base. The rover will also try to stabilize the slope.

Stage 1: The Rescue

  1. Your task is to locate the technician, uncover him, and if possible, drag him back to base.
    1. The suit has a WIFI access point, that provides the gps location of the technician (2.4Ghz)
      1. By connecting to this device, you will be able to access a web page showing the technicians current location
      2. See https://github.com/canspacetech/CIRC-2024-Winter-AvSearchRescue for more information.
    2. The astronaut can be dug or dragged out
    3. The astronaut is wearing a standard high visibility vest
    4. The suit also has a thermometer measuring the astronauts core temp that should be read as soon as possible and reported to the judge.
      1. A readable image of the thermometer will be sufficient
      2. Either as a JPEG or show the judge live on a video feed
    5. The astronaut is wearing a harness, with several possible attachment points
      1. Manual assistance to connect is possible, but with penalty
      2. Loop on a rope attached to technician also available
      3. Technician will weigh less than 5 kilograms
        1. About the size of a small child
    6. The astronaut needs to be brought back to the marked medical bay at base.
      1. The Astronaut’s temperature is dropping at a steady rate from 37C, and they must be brought back to the med bay before their temperature drops below 30C
      2. The temperature is dropping at a rate of 0.155C per minute.
      3. Some points will still be awarded if the astronaut is brought back to the medical bay after their temperature has dropped below 30C
  2. A further complication is that there is crevasses that must be avoided
    1. The locations of these crevasses is provided via GPS locations and paint around the edge of the crevasses
    2. Astronaut should not be dragged into the crevasse

Stage 2: Stabilize the Slope

  1. A slope stabilizer is at the base station, and must be installed to prevent additional slides
    1. Engineers on earth have analyzed the slope, and have sent your team the GPS coordinate where the stabilizer must be installed
      1. The device must be installed in the right area to be effective
    2. Once placed, 3 stabilizing legs are installed to the device
      1. Legs are 3 inch diameter PVC Pipes (3.25 inch OD), and push be pushed into the stabilizer leg holes
  2. The slope stability is declining. It must be stabilized within 60 minutes or there is a risk of an additional avalanche.

Autonomy

  1. For both tasks points will be awarded for programmatically collecting the GPS location. (Scanning and connecting to the WIFI access point, gathering the GPS location)
  2. For both tasks points will be awarded for autonomously driving to and from each site (GPS location within 3 Meters)