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MARS ROVER PROTOTYPE
Purdue Engineering Project completed by myself, Grace Whitaker, Jacob Whitehouse, and Sam Vander Missen
TASK
Our design team was tasked with prototyping a Mars Cargo Rover, which will now be referred to as a MACRO, for delivering supplies to a long-term base on Mars. The prototype must be able to autonomously deliver cargo of various sizes at an efficient speed while maneuvering the treacherous terrain. This goal was simulated in our prototype design process with the requirements that it must reach and maintain a given speed, sense and follow a solid, dashed, or dotted line, overcome obstacles of various sizes, and accurately deliver cargo in an upright position based on the sensing of magnetic plates. Our MACRO prototype consists of lego mindstorm pieces, various sensors, 3D printed parts, and Brick, Grove, and Raspberry Pi’s.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
. In setting up our project management, we put together the design specification review. One deliverable was creating a functional block diagram for the MACRO, so we put that together as seen here. This helped us define how the robot’s hardware would connect together along with the flow of the software throughout the entire system.
RESULTS/ROLE
I took on a mainly mechanical design role. Decisions and testing on which designs would optimize our final project were led by myself, as well as changes to the code based on the mechanical portion. Project management was also something I took lead on with this project by organizing the team through work breakdown structures and Gantt charts.