10/7:  All the changes implemented into on our 3D models have been made and the second prototype parts were printed. First prototype was disassembled to reuse the aluminum profiles and we were able to assemble 1/4 of the rover. However, we failed the first trial the PCB and are still deciding what will be used for communication on the user level, a source for battery (drone?) and good voltage regulator (protection?). We will also be using a 24V battery, step down 3.3V for logic and 5V for power (giga, rpi, camera, router &servo).

12/7: We decided to throw away pi, use wifi direct to giga, decided on a one 5V step down regulator and decided to add imu

13/7 : Besides more printing and assembling, we finally got to cut the aluminum profiles today. We decided on linear bush bearings and metal rod for pivot and tested giga(blink) over wifi

14/7: The body of the rover and the remaining legs was fully assembled, however the legs cannot be attached to the body of the rover yet as we lack the necessary screws required. The rocker joint and rocker to chassis parts will be combined as putting them into 2 separate parts are not necessary and troublesome. We are still improving the pcb design and hope to purchase linear bearings and couplers soon.

We finally got all the material to put the legs of prototype 1 together and got to assembling but came across some unexpected issues a long to way. The use of deep-groove bearings was not applied correctly in parts that requires rotation as there is still not enough clearance between the pieces to rotate smoothly. As such we have to explore other options and ways to make the bearings work.

The size of the nuts that came with the M8 screws purchased previously was also too big for the nut grooves placed in the parts, so it requires amendments. We also decided to combine the servo housing with the motor housing leg pieces together, and turned the ap from the servo housing to be fully 3d printed instead of using aluminum profiles.

Additionally, a 3D printed mold was done to assist in the making of the seed pods and provide a consistent round shape of ~3.5cm

03/07:

We discovered that the aluminium profiles require a specific 20mm x 20mm aluminium bracket so the surface change of our 3d models have to be tweaked. The grooves on the back of the 20mm x 20mm aluminium bracket was measured and taken into consideration so it can fit on our 3d printed models

– Changed dev mode to 2

– Got the giga to control the motor (Pam too fast for motor)

– Got PCA9685 to control motor

– Tony suggested using PCA9685 to control all pins for DRV8874

04/07: We printed the 3D parts that connects the aluminium profiles on the side and the part that connects the wheels to the body (joint). We also printed the servo housing and legs We also that the 3D model of the differentiator is too big (40cm+) for the lab’s 3D printer as it can only print a dimension up to 20x20x20cm. As such we broke the differentiator model into 3 parts, using the tongue and groove method and screws to secure the pieces tightly together. We changes the 3D printed piece below the differentiator into an AP for more strength, it has its own 3D model design and print to connect those 2 pieces together.