Mars rover Manipal

Objective

To design a robotic assistant for terrain traversal in mars like terrian

Challenges

The main objective of this project was to participate in URC 2016 challenge. A team of 9 members designed a assistive robot based on guidelines provideby university rover challenge.Some of these guidelines were 50 kg weight limit and $15000 limit.The competition was divided into four major Tasks.

1) Astronaut assistance task: It was a staged task in which roverswere required to pick up and deliver objects in the field, anddeliver assistance to astronauts, all while traversing a wide varietyof terrain

2)Equipment servicing task: Rovers were required to performseveral dexterous operations on a mock-up equipment system. Therover would have to travel up to 0.25 km across relatively flatterrain to reach the equipment. The equipment servicing task willinvolve deploying a chute by turning some knobs and pressingbuttons on panel.

3)Science Cache Task: The goal is to collect samples at sitesselected in the field, perform basic science evaluation of thesesamples with on board instrumentation, and store at least onesample in a cache for further scientific analysis. A single or multiplesites can be sampled. Sites should be analysed for their likelihoodto support microbial life using the geological context such asevidence of water flow ,minerals present and soil structure inaddition to the data obtained from the on-board Instrumentation.

4) Extreme Traversal Task: Rovers were required to autonomouslytraverse between markers in this staged task across difficult terrain.The rover should be able to climb on extreme slopes and dropdown from a step of 1m.Equipment Servicing Task:Astronaut Assistance TaskAstronaut assistance taskExtreme Traversal TaskExtreme Traversal TaskScience Cache Task:Equipment

The Design of Suspension System

The Testing of Rover