Yale Exploration Rover

Project Goal 

To design, manufacture, and test a semi-autonomous Mars exploration rover with a range of technical capabilities to compete in the annual University Rover Challenge (URC) held in Utah (see here).

My Role(s): 

Technical Skills: Non-technical Skills: 

Results & Future Plans

The rover project is currently in its early stages of design: working with the project lead, I have completed literature reviews and preliminary design ideas for all four subteams in the project. Moreover, some subteams (such as robotics) have preliminary sketches, designs, and trade studies. Looking ahead to the Fall of 2024, we hope to greatly increase the pace of development of the project. We plan for a thorough design phase in the fall, a construction phase in the winter, and a testing and validation phase in the spring, putting us in a position to compete at URC in late May of 2025.

Project Overview & Process

This project is currently in its early stages of design, with the goal of building and testing a rover capable of traversing complex terrain, collecting soil/rock samples, and running experiments to test for the presence of life. As the chief engineer, I oversee all aspects of the technical design of the vehicle. Over the Summer of 2024, I had direct involvement in the early stages of most subteams (particularly the robotics and electronics teams) by conducting literature reviews, formulating preliminary designs, and more. Below is a summary of each subteam and the developments so far:

Drives: This subteam is responsible for the design, manufacture, and assembly of the rover chassis, wheels, propulsion systems, and suspension. We are currently using a Rocker-Bogie suspension system, and we have a MATLAB script designed to optimize the dimensions and geometry of the suspension based on competition requirements and engineering truss analysis. Looking ahead to the Fall of 2024, this subteam will continue to refine the suspension design and begin an in-depth design of the chassis and propulsion systems.

Robotics: This subteam is responsible for the design, manufacture, and assembly of the rover's robotic arm. This team is unique in involving equal parts mechanical design and electronic control systems. Currently, the arm is designed to have 5 degrees of freedom and a crab-pincer-style claw. For a detailed document describing the preliminary design, click here. For Fall 2024, this team will begin an in-depth design of the arm, including exact mechanical constraints, CAD models, control mechanisms, and more.

Electronics & Control: This subteam is responsible for the design, manufacture, and testing of the rover's control systems, ranging from the computer vision software to the power supply to long-range radio communication. Due to my lack of experience in electrical engineering, this subteam has progressed slowly compared to the others; we currently have a literature review and brief preliminary design of the system here. However, looking ahead to the Fall of 2024, we intend to ramp up the pace of design by recruiting more electrical engineering and computer science majors.

Science Mission Systems (SMS): This subteam is responsible for the design, manufacture, and testing of the rover's built-in science experiments.  Following URC competition guidelines, the SMS module will be outfitted with sample collection mechanisms and experiments capable of detecting life. To simplify the integration with the electronics mechanisms, the SMS module will have one life detection experiment, to be determined soon. Looking ahead to the Fall of 2024, this team will begin an in-depth design of the mechanical sample collection system and the electronics of the life detection mechanism.