Virtual Astronaut User`s Manual - Washington University in St. Louis
Contents
1. Virtual Astronaut User s Manual 1 Introduction The Virtual Astronaut VA is an interactive 3D environment that allows you to observe the Martian landscape and interact with a virtual MER rover You can navigate along the surface with the aid of a mouse keyboard shortcuts or gamepad controls controlling the navigation of the rover along a path taken by Opportunity and visiting targets with in situ observations Addi tional capabilities are provided to alter the contrast of the scene change the terrain and make measurements 1 1 System Requirement The following chart lists the system specifications recommended for optimal program perfor mance An older PC with a poor graphics card and lower RAM than recommended below may not support the VA application Recommended System Specification Operating System Windows XP 32 bit or higher Windows 7 Mac OS X System Memory gt 2 GB RAM Graphics Memory Recommended gt 512 MB A dedicated graphics card is recommended Hard Disk Space 1 GB free hard disk space for Unity Cache Data Note See unity web for more information http unity3d com unity system requirements 1 2 Getting Started VA runs in most standard web browsers The free Unity Web Player http unity3d com webplayer plug in needs to be downloaded and installed before running the Virtual Astronaut The Unity 3D web player currently runs on Windows and Mac The VA at Santa Maria Crater can be accessed from the webpage htt2. and Drag farther away from Y Button B for rotation center Decrease Speed V for translation and Drag towards the center B Button M for rotation PDS Geosciences Node Virtual Astronaut Version 1 Page 4 Move down Move up Forward mMmQwreATtTYUY CPE P ee oe Ci Ce Ge Ento shift ZX C NM B N M xs 7 7 Shift Ci ae Ait At i SS Gi Backward Reset Views Look up Look down Move left Move right Look left Look right S Tran S Tran S Rot S Rot Note S Rot Rotation Speed S Tran Translation Speed Fig 3 Functions of shortcut keys 2 2 Altitude The height at which the astronaut moves above the Martian surface can be chosen by pressing the R W keys or pushing the Gamepad LT RT Button The default height is 4 5 meters for both the walk and drive modes While in the target mode the height is initially set at 1 5 meters 2 3 Reset Reset the scene by pressing the Y key or by clicking on the icon fro in the top left of the screen 3 Drive Mode The drive mode displays a rover moving along a path taken by Opportunity from sols 2450 to 2547 Dec 15 2010 to March 25 2011 The positions along the path were acquired from the rover telemetry To open the drive mode click on the icon le in the upper left of the screen A menu will then appear on the right with various options The simulation timer begins and ends when the run starts and finishes During the simulation the rover drive can be sped up slowed dow
3. at the loca tion PDS Geosciences Node Virtual Astronaut Version 1 Page 7 P opportunity MERS Analyst s Notebook ee To spre GE GhHome OWssot Summaries T So Summaries T Fiap T CSSueh T L Resources T Die Sot samanay REPORT S e emi Front Hazard Camera inverse LUT RDR Downsampled linearized Urter ssi or palect bom bst Then select a repot to Mi __ 1 F 35257697 DHL B1 FS PHILOM access docimerta a Gata Produa Suewnery 1 F 357579497 DAL Bi FS Pr LONI Sot 2627 Ste 137 Pos 285 SCIENC AD so danas aaa lomas seront I Date products ad rey IE SSIS ESP D PR Peoria ct z DH Gocis Lo RI 1P 352511908 ETH B1 Fa P2801 LT CI Ww I Th tT 1 251 i B Guci MG i Pt 51 EFF Pt a E odori At s Tf fr Pel z 4 454 iw 2514606 EF 1rera up et H vt p y 2 iy 0414698 Ep HT Fe TENO F Mp n gt a br base Pepe a 1I r4 b pruesscis We iw 414716 FP IFO PPTs MOF a 1 prode A Doenioad Prodect Files 4 5 76 14769 EFF ai Bre MD Ft Prodect Data F e 7 yu uct MI i t sodects AN Meta Data Overview 1 362514990 EFF B BP2O7S MD Ft TA T So Planet Day Nembe Local Tree Soar Time Rover Moton Courter teawence ptt UTC Start Tene POTLDMoMT 1D 4957 148 r Toon wi4 e Tto es cy wee eT DS See _ 4 3 Sasco Cra Clock Stet Court 25 19897 621 be ee Fig 6 Rover observations archived in the PDS Analyst s Notebook 5 Measurement Tool The measurement tool can be open
4. des multiple surface overlays on a digital elevation model In or der to alter the surface click on the icon in the upper left of the screen The layers are made up of image mosaics at various resolutions and an orbital HiRISE image The surface areas cov ered by the mosaics include Luis de Torres Ruiz Garcia and the southeast crater Visibility of the layers can be controlled by switching between turn on and turn off in the menu on the right side The vertical exaggeration can also be multiplied or divided by two by clicking the button 2 or 2 respectively Figure 8 If you observe an empty scene after the process press the reset but ton in the upper left of the screen to reset the scene PDS Geosciences Node Virtual Astronaut Version 1 Page 9 Fig 8 Surface layer adjustment menu The Virtual Astronaut is produced by the PDS Geosciences Node at Washington University in St Louis Send comments and questions to va wunder wustl edu PDS Geosciences Node Virtual Astronaut Version 1 Page 10
5. e bar controls the speed of the simulation Target Mode Launches a menu containing a list of targets approached and analyzed by Opportunity Selecting a target will transport the astronaut to the target location Measurement Activates the measurement tool that allows you to measure the dimensions Tool of a target Terrain Tool Opens a menu to adjust the terrain vertical exaggeration factor and control the visibility of different layers in the scene Help Tool Directs you to the webpage with VA user s scenario and user s manual Contrast Tool Adjusts the contrast brightness of a scene Reset Tool Resets the scene to the initial positioning 2 Walk Mode The walk mode allows you to explore and view the Martian landscape to better understand and visualize the geomorphic and geologic contexts 2 1 Navigation The VA supports navigation with a mouse keyboard shortcuts or a gamepad Simulate walking forward or backward through the scene by clicking the top or bottom of the screen or by using E D Rotate the astronaut left or right by selecting a point in the left or right of the screen To move left or right without rotation hold down Ctrl while clicking in the corresponding side of the screen Figure 2 The navigation speed is determined by the distance between the center of the screen and the cursor Clicking on a point near the center of the screen which is the intersec tion of two black lines on the screen will result in
6. ed by clicking on the icon m in the top left of the screen This tool can e Give the position of measured points e Give the distance from a measured point to the view point and e Provide the distance and height between two measured points There are two ways to use the measurement tool depending on how the cursor is used A single left click on the screen returns the position of a point and its distance to the view point Another way to use this mode is to determine the distance and height between two points Left clicking on the first point and then dragging to a second point will bring up a window near the cursor with the distance and height measurements Figure 7 To close the measurement tool click on the icon LI in the upper left of the screen again PDS Geosciences Node Virtual Astronaut Version 1 Page 8 Fig 7 An astronaut making a measurement 6 Scene Adjustments You can adjust scene contrast and the visibility of the mosaic layers forming the scene Both of these adjustments can be accessed from the toolbar in the top left of the screen 6 1 Scene Contrast The contrast of the scene can be adjusted in order to highlight targets on the surface Dragging the horizontal slider above the icon E in the upper left of the screen will increase or decrease the contrast of the scene Clicking the sun icon under the slider will reset the scene to the default contrast setting 6 2 Surface Layers The 3D terrain in the VA inclu
7. little to no movement Conversely the farther away you click a point from the center the faster the navigation Moving the mouse along the vertical black line on the screen will result in the forward or backward movement Moving along the horizontal black line on the screen will result in rotate operation PDS Geosciences Node Virtual Astronaut Version 1 Page 3 Fig 2 The left image shows the direction of movement using the mouse in walk mode The right image displays the direction of movement while holding Ctrl The astronaut s viewpoint can be changed by using a combination of the keyboard and mouse You can look around by holding Shift while clicking and dragging the cursor in the direction you wish to look A summary of the navigation controls can be found in the table below and figure 3 Note that using the gamepad allows for more than one control to be used at a time Quick Navigation Guide Functions Keyboard Mouse Gamepad Move for E D Drag or click and hold in Left joystick push up ward backward top bottom of screen down Move left right S F Ctrl key and drag cursor Left joystick push to in left right of screen the left right Change altitude R W N A LT RT Button Turn left right J L Drag to the left right Right joystick push Yaw to the left right Look up down I K Shift key and drag cursor Right joystick push Pitch in top bottom of screen up down Reset Y N A X Button Increase Speed X for translation
8. meter temperature diagnostics and Alpha Particle X ray Spectrometer APXS The VA at Santa Maria Crater includes two in situ targets Luis de Torres and Ruiz Garcia The following operations can be completed in the target mode The icon in the top left of the screen opens a menu on the right side with the list of target locations Selecting the button in the menu corresponding to the desired target will transport you to the location Figure 5 The menu on the right side of the screen expands to include a list with the MI focal section merge and Hazcam images that portray both the selected target and the experiments that Oppor PDS Geosciences Node Virtual Astronaut Version 1 Page 6 tunity carried out at that location For Luis de Torres MI MB and APXS data were taken For Ruiz Garcia MI and APXS data were collected For example clicking the button Hazcam APXS in the list will display an image near the tar get The window can be moved for better viewing Right clicking on the rover can also open the images Click this button to open or close a list of objects Right click on the rover to pop up the List of Hazcam APXS image objects Left click to open the Hazcam image with APXS placed on the target Fig 5 Rover observing a surface target In the image window there is a direct link to the product in the MER Analyst s Notebook AN Figure 6 The AN contains information about the target and experiments completed
9. n paused or reset The speed is based on the number of points and complexity of the trav erse path While the drive mode is active the viewpoint is automatically fixed behind the rover and changes as the drive progresses through the scene Figure 4 The altitude is set at 4 5 meters by default but is adjustable with the R W keys When the drive is paused or reset you can look and move around the surface in walk mode Once the drive is reactivated the viewpoint returns to the position at which the drive was paused This mode can be controlled with the following PDS Geosciences Node Virtual Astronaut Version 1 Page 5 e The run button starts the rover along the fixed path taken by Opportunity The drive will finish when the rover reaches the east side of the scene Clicking pause anytime during the traverse will pause the simulation e The reset button will place the rover back at the start of the traverse Pressing the run but ton will start the simulation again e The horizontal slide bar controls the rover s speed e The close simulation button closes the panel Fig 4 A rover driving a path taken by Opportunity 4 Target Mode The target mode in the VA allows you to observe surface targets approached and analyzed by Opportunity during a MER mission This mode is designed to display the high resolution data collected from in situ observations made with the Rock Abrasion Tool RAT Microscopic Im ager MI Mossbauer MB spectro
10. p wufs wustl edu kvt Santa_Maria default htm The VA can be streamed online or down loaded to your local machine Downloading is recommended for slow internet connections The opening screen is shown below Figure 1 PDS Geosciences Node Virtual Astronaut Version 1 Page 1 Fig 1 Opening scene with toolbar at the top left 1 3 Modes The VA has four modes walk drive target and measurement Each mode gives you a unique viewpoint to investigate the Martian surface The following chart briefly summarizes the func tion of each mode Mode Function Walk Mode Allows you to move around the terrain and to look left right up and down as if he or she were an astronaut Drive Mode Simulates a rover drive along a traverse taken by Opportunity from sols 2450 to 2547 Dec 15 2010 to March 25 2011 Target Mode Displays in situ observations with high resolution data collected from MER rovers Measurement Gives the position of measured points gives the distance from a measured Tool point to the view point and provides the distance and height between two measured points 1 4 Screen layout A toolbar with 7 icons and a slider underneath for adjusting the size is located in the upper left of the screen Refer to the following summary chart for the function of each icon PDS Geosciences Node Virtual Astronaut Version 1 Page 2 Function Drive Mode Opens the rover simulation menu with buttons to run reset and close The slid
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