Christiahn Roman
EELS Crevasse Descent Animation
The Challenge:
Creating a visualization showing how a special version of NASA JPL’s EELS (Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor) would descend a moulin (glacial crevasse) in preparation for a gate review leading up to the mission at Athabasca Glacier in Canada.
The Solution:
Christiahn rigged and animated the production engineering CAD to show how the joints of the robot will work in unison, expanding to bridge the gap of the crevasse while positioning the ice screws to conform to the non-uniform surface of the ice. The animation is set in a procedurally generated synthetic environment including terrain and volumetrics modeled in Blender.
Lead roboticists and autonomous systems engineers on the team considered the animation a proof of concept for the kinematic system which had not yet been fully simulated nor physically tested. The animation helped communicate the vision for how the robot would function to key stakeholders during the gate review and EELS was allocated continued funding to proceed with the field test at Athabasca, where EELS was successful in demonstrating the first robotic vertical descent of a moulin. This achievement proved EELS’ capability for exploring icy moon environments such as Enceladus.