Lunokhod, which means “Moon Walker” in Russian, was the first roving remote-controlled robot to operate on another terrestrial body. The Soviet Union landed it on the moon in 1970 equipped with a conical antenna, a large directional antenna, two television cameras (the eyes), and a vast array of sensors.
Beatty Robotics was asked to build a functional Lunokhod robot for a new space museum that is being built in Prague in the Czech Republic. As soon as we saw Lunokhod’s Jules Vernes steampunk design we fell in love with it. We were excited to begin. The real Lunokhod is about 8′ long. The museum wanted a miniature version that fit in their exhibit, so ours is about 8″ long. Visitors to the museum will operate it by remote control using the First Person View (FPV) camera.
Lunokhod includes an Arduino Nano microcontroller, an Xbee radio, a Sabertooth motor controller, 8 gear motors, 8 custom-machined wheels, a custom-machined rocker-bogie suspension system, a tub-shaped body, a domed top, a wifi camera, and other components. Because of the robot’s unusual appearance, we designed and machined nearly all of the parts on our CNC, including the spoked wheels, the wheel rockers, the base plate, the rim plate (which turned out to be the most complex part we have ever machined). Working with the truncated-cone of the tub-shaped body was also particularly difficult. But in the end, we love how it all turned out. We hope you like it, too. Pictures and video below.
A photograph of the real Lunokhod robot
Drawing of the original Lunokhod robot
Lunokhod by Beatty Robotics 
Lunokhod – Side View 
Lunokhod Front View. The black circle at the bottom is a high-definition wifi camera that provides a First Person View (FPV) to the person operating the robot.
Luv It!
That’s a pretty awesome Replica I would like to know If plans were available so that I could build one for my own collection.Thanks in advance.
Gary cook
Cookrobotics
Wow, a robot that looks more like art 😉 BTW, is that a pressure cooker ? Also, I do not have access to a cnc machine. What do you charge for cutting out parts? What did you use to design the parts?
Thanks, Jame. No, it’s not a pressure cooker, but it sure does look like a pot on wheels! I’m still a little perplexed why the Russians designed it that way. I assume because a pressure cooker was their paradigm for handling the pressure they anticipated on the moon, or something to that effect. In our case, we machined most of the parts on our CNC, but that particular part was hacked out of 6″ to 4″ aluminum duct reducer (to achieve the truncated cone shape). Regarding the parts: We are heavily involved with our own projects, so we don’t really machine parts for other folks. Regarding design: We design with SolidWorks, do the CAM with HSMWorks, and control the CNC with Mach3.
It’s really not a pressure cooker 😉 The “lid” is the solar panel. During the moon night, they closed the lid (well no sun to draw power from), and hence sealed the electronics in the “pot” so that they wouldn’t cool out.
Is there any user guide or design guide for building a Lunokhod, or any site talking deeply about its design?
hamreen: No, we designed and built Lunokhod entirely ourselves by looking at various historical pictures and reading about its function. There is little information about it. There is no user guide or design guide or primary site.
thank you much. I am electronic engineering. I decide to build the same orginal model for my Master project.