Project Overview

Main objectives for Team Rexus

The Mars Society’s University Rover Challenge challenges students to build remotely operated rovers that can accomplish a variety of tasks that might one day assist astronauts working on the surface of Mars. Rovers will compete in four missions:

1) a Science Mission to investigate a site for the presence of life

2) a Delivery Mission to deliver a variety of objects to astronauts in the field across rugged terrain

3) an Equipment Servicing Mission to perform dexterous operations on a mock lander using a robotic arm

4) an Autonomous Navigation Mission to autonomously travel to a series of locations.

(Source: Requirements & Guidelines. (n.d.). https://urc.marssociety.org/home/requirements

guidelines)

For the objectives relevant to the course EE5082, we will only be focusing on the “Science mission” along with the robotic arm.

Science Mission Needs

  • To detect extinct and extant life
  • To collect and analyse soil from three to six sample sites in a 0.5km radius
  • To store a high-value sample to be given at the end of the mission
  • Hazardous chemicals are heavily discouraged
  • Must be done in 20-35 minutes
  • Robotic arm should be capable of picking up 10gm of soil

 

Going into further detail for the above needs, the objectives we will be tackling can be divided and explained as follows:

  • Onboard Lab:
    • Receive soil sample from robotic arm
    • Test soil for esterase activity, protein content and microfossils

 

  • Robotic arm:
    • Total Reach Needed (with buffer) ~1.2m
    • Robotic Arm Reach Requirement: 40cm (for science) and 100cm (for manipulation)
    • 4 DOF Arm – optimizes on simple control and lesser singularities
    • Precision (~2mm) and Accuracy (Manual Teleop) required for meeting both science and manipulation task