2022 NASA Robotic Mining Competition
Skye Swarat, Dylan Barnes, Kayla Decker, George Nehma, Brian Samayoa, Christopher Thompson, Youpeng Xu, Abdulaziz Al Badi, Mark Oncheck, Patrick Haynes, Christian Haworth, Jonathan Sopelak, Yibo Wang
Faculty Advisor: Dr. David Fleming, Dept. of Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences, Florida Institute of Technology
In this annual competition, NASA asks students to design, fabricate, and test a robot to demonstrate space technologies. The robot must maneuver and excavate in an artificial lunar environment containing regolith simulants, account for weight and size limitations, and operate through autonomous and remote-control operations.
Background & Motivation
Project Objectives
Testing & Analysis
Excavation & Delivery
Electronics & Software
(1) Develop an excavation and delivery system to maximize regolith simulant collection.
(2) Develop a structural system to maximize maneuverability, stability, and dust mitigation.
(3) Develop software capable of autonomous and remote-control navigation, excavation, and delivery.
(4) Develop an electronics system to support all other subsystems.
(5) Inspire the Artemis generation through STEM outreach events.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Dr. David Fleming, the Florida Tech faculty, and our volunteers:
Structure & Materials
Outreach
Future Work
Our team has redesigned the bucket ladder from the previous year to optimize the regolith collection process by replacing the conveyer and boxes with a more efficient chain and bucket design.
The subteams worked in tandem to create an autonomous robot. The robot is comprised of a Raspberry Pi4 with lidar and other sensors to achieve object detection and avoidance. The necessary code was written in python and used Pulse Width Modulation to interface with the controller to move the motors.
Our team created custom lesson plans for children of all ages to learn about our robot, the Lunabotics competition, and the Artemis program. Each event
consisted of a short
presentation, a series
of hands-on activities
tailored to each age
group, and a brochure
with home activities.
We will be competing at NASA in the Lunabotics competition on May 23rd and 24th. Additionally, we will provide next year’s team with any materials they will need to be successful.
The robot chassis consists of Al 6061 and carbon fiber tubing, both of which were chosen for their availability and high yield strength to density ratio. The chassis design minimizes material mass while maintaining structural integrity, which is verified through ANSYS software. Lastly, the wheel design is inspired by the Loopwheels' design, which uses leaf springs near the axle entry point for suspension.
TeTesting and analysis of the hardware and software has been done in hte HSDC using various parts built by hte team in tandem with code from the software team. Software has also been tested in Gazebo.