1 of 15

TitanWandelaar

Youssef Abdelhalim

Under Supervision of Shail D

2 of 15

Background

  • NASA Mars rovers are equipped with the Rocker-Bogie suspension system, which has proved to be effective at climbing inclined surfaces and transferring over obstacles.
  • It is especially functional when each side faces irregularly placed rocks of different shapes and sizes.
  • Thus it is able to provide lots of stability to the main body without the need for any springs

​

​

3 of 15

Problem

  • The current design was created in 1988 by Don Bickler, with minimal updates since then.
  • It does not address two major problems:
    • Coarse sand traps
    • Wheel erosion due to jagged surfaces
  • In 2009, The Spirit rover got stuck in a sand trap and was decommissioned, costing NASA around $800 million [1].
  • In 2013, the Curiosity rover got some serious damage to its front wheels due to erosion from constantly hitting rocks

​

​

4 of 15

Problem (2)

​

​

​

Last picture from Spirit before it got

decommissioned [1]

Front wheel of Curiosity severely corroded [2]

5 of 15

Solution: TitanWandelaar

6 of 15

Solution

  • Mechanical walkers proved to be really good candidates for walking on both on sandy and rocky terrains
  • To the left is the Strandbeest, which uses the Jansen Linkage to glide over sand (to get sand back on shore)
  • To the right is the Strider Linkage which allows for moving on rocks (to move tanks on rocky terrains)

7 of 15

Solution (2)

  • Out of all the well-known 4-bar linkages that are used to create mechanical walkers, none of them allow for movement on inclined surfaces
  • Thus, for the first part of my project, I had to design a walker that allows for movement on sandy, rocky, and inclined terrains
  • Using some equations and Mathematica code, we found the optimal locus and designed it on Linkage

​

8 of 15

Solution (3)

​

9 of 15

Solution (4)

  • We then created a solidworks model that utilizes the side lengths obtained from Linkage.

10 of 15

Solution (5)

  • This design allows for movement on sand due to the gliding nature of mechanical walkers

​

  • It also allows for walking on rocks since there are 6 pairs of legs and each of them are 120 degree off-phase

​

  • The innovation is that this device specifically is the first to allow walkers to climb on an incline

​

  • The front leg creates a mini hill, which the back leg uses for grip to move forward

11 of 15

Full Model

12 of 15

Simulating space missions

  • In order to simulate the functions carried out by a rover, we added an electric system to control the motor, temperature detection system, and humidity extremity system.

13 of 15

Simulating space missions (2)

  • Here is a schematic for this circuit:

14 of 15

Additive Manufacturing technology

  • Additive Manufacturing (AM), coupled with Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Topology Optimization, allows us to produce a really efficient structure in terms of strength-to-weight ratio.

​

  • This is because we can cut out unnecessary materials where the structure does not need to be dense.

​

  • This allows us to keep the feet strong, without sacrificing much added weight

​

  • Current wheels have to be thin enough to be malleable, which makes them weaker and thus easier to break

​

  • More legs than wheels allow for a wider safety margin

15 of 15

Thank you!

Questions? Comments? Feedback?

​

To read more about my project, visit my polynet page:

https://app.polygence.org/scholars/youssef-abdelhalim

​