Rebuilding From Scratch: How Northeastern’s Mars Rover Team will Overcome the Competition
Salem Chen, a rising second year mechanical engineering major, works on the arm remote of the Mars rover. Photo by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University
Northeastern University Mars Rover team has rebuilt their rover from scratch, and are confident that their new upgrades will serve them well in this year’s University Rover Challenge in Utah.
This article originally appeared on Northeastern Global News. It was published by Cesareo Contreras.
Lighter, faster and more agile. Meet Northeastern’s new Mars rover
Northeastern University Mars Rover team’s new machine features an upgraded rocker suspension system, employs a refined chassis and weighs in 10% lighter with more carbon fiber.
It’s the first time the student club has rebuilt its flagship rover from scratch. Most years, they worked to refine just one or two pieces. Two years ago, the team totally transformed its robot arm. Last year, they focused on its electrical and drive system, said Noah Büttner, team lead of the rover project.
But despite last year’s strong third-place finish at the University Rover Challenge, URC, the team decided to construct a brand new rover to be even more competitive.
The vehicle has a new swerve drive system, which allows the robot to turn its four wheels to move side to side. The technology replaces the team’s former six-wheel “tank-style” system, which could only be driven from front to back, but not laterally. The new rig also has a revamped robot arm that has a 180-degree reversible end-of-arm tool that can pick up objects, and type on keyboards and other similar devices.
The carbon fiber upgrades on the new rover make it lighter than last year’s model, coming in at around 46 kilograms, or 101 lbs, explained Büttner, who graduated this spring with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and mathematics. He stayed on a few more weeks to help the team prepare for the competition.
Building the new machine has been a phenomenal learning experience for new members just trying their hand at robotics systems for the first time, explained Spandana Machavarapu, an electrical co-lead of the project who also graduated this spring with a bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering, but, like Büttner, is staying on for the competition.
The team is composed of a number of subgroups, each responsible for a particular part of the rover, she explained, from mechanical design to electrical soldering.
“When someone’s actually designing a part, actually designing a board, they’re able to learn so much more than if they’re just using the same rover that competes very well every single year,” she said.
All of this year’s upgrades will be useful when Northeastern competes against 37 other teams representing 11 countries next week at this year’s URC at the Mars Desert Research Center outside of Hanksville, Utah.
At the competition, the rover will be tasked with completing for four missions — a science mission, where it will have to collect soil samples; a delivery mission where it will work collaboratively with an astronaut on the field; an equipment-servicing mission where the rover will be tasked with “performing several dexterous operations to a mock lander” such as typing on keyboards and operating joysticks; and an autonomous navigation mission where its self-driving capabilities will be put to the test.
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Srikeerthi Bhupathiraju, Shaan Merchant, and Anthony Wang (in order) all working on the rover before the competition. Photo by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University
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