UH Hilo computer science students conclude year-long software project on planetary rover
The project gave the software engineering students the opportunity to learn about the structure of the code for remotely-run Helelani planetary rover.
By Susan Enright.
A group of software engineering students from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo have completed their year-long project documenting and upgrading the software on a planetary rover. The 700-pound Helelani (Heavenly Travels) is equipped with a suite of instruments and imaging systems that can be controlled remotely.
The work was part of a two-semester software engineering class (CS 460/461) taught by Professor of Computer Science H. Keith Edwards.
- UH Hilo Computer Science Students to Upgrade PISCES Rover (PISCES, Nov. 2023)
“We had four software engineering students — AJ Garcia, Daniel Malone, Jaden Matsunaka, and Richard Sevao — work with Christian Andersen from PISCES to update the code base used to run the Helelani rover,” says Edwards.
Andersen is director of the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems, commonly called PISCES, a research and education program exploring Earth and space. The center was founded in 2007 at UH Hilo and then later moved to the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. PISCES returned to UH Hilo last year and is now housed at the College of Natural and Health Sciences.
- PISCES space program gains synergy with move back to UH Hilo (UH Hilo Stories, June 28, 2024)
The brownfield project
As a testing platform, space agencies from throughout the world can pilot the rover Helelani tele-robotically through planetary analog test sites on Hawaiʻi Island that simulate rugged lunar and Martian terrain. Undergraduates at UH Hilo use the rover for hands-on experience in robotics, engineering, and programming. Each year, a group of Professor Edwards’ students work on the rover’s hardware and software systems as part of an internship program.
The year-long project just concluded was “something known as a brownfield project where students work with an existing code base rather than developing their own from scratch,” says Edwards.
“This is a good type of project for software engineering classes since students are forced to work with someone else’s code and understand how it works, which is quite similar to what happens in their first software development job,” explains Edwards. “In particular, they are always surprised at how few human readable comments developers include in their code bases.”
The project gave students the opportunity to learn about the structure of the code that runs Helelani and were then able to clarify how the code works.
“They were also able to update the operating system for the mission control station and were able to get the code base to work with the new operating system,” says Edwards. “This is another challenge particular to brownfield type projects since sometimes code is based on outdated aspects of the old operating system that are no longer supported.”
Next: Fine tuning a 360-degree camera
The students also did some experimentation with implementing a new 360-degree camera into the rover.
“Once this is completed, it should be possible for future users to be able to leverage the greater visualization capabilities of the new camera,” says Professor Edwards.
The work will continue with a new group of students this coming school year.
“We hope to continue this relationship with Dr. Edwards’ class next year to continue adding to and upgrading the system on Helelani,” says PISCES Director Andersen.
Related story
PISCES joins UH Hilo’s College of Natural and Health Sciences
Story by Susan Enright, a public information specialist for the Office of the Chancellor and editor of UH Hilo Stories. She received her bachelor of arts in English and certificate in women’s studies from UH Hilo.
