With everything complete and tested ORYX 2.0 was bubble wrapped for its journey to Texas, where we will compete in the NASA NIA Robo-Ops Exploration Challenge at the Johnson Space Center next week. We look forward to seeing the other teams there!
Author Archives: tomcarlone
WPI’s BattleCry Demonstration
May 18 and 19 was the BattleCry event, a postseason FIRST competition hosted by WPI that attracted 48 FRC teams from around the area. We used this opportunity to do full-scale testing to demonstrate our rover’s capability and also let high school students drive ORYX 2.0. We had a great time teaching people about our rover. Below is a picture of Team 1124, the Uberbots, collecting rocks through the X-box joystick controls.
Completed Arm
The arm is complete, and Oryx 2.0 is now ready for the Robo-Ops challenge. The arm has two degrees of freedom, a panning joint, and shoulder joint. A high torque excavator style scoop will pick up rocks… or anything else within its grasp.
Assembling the arm
All arm parts are back from chromating. With only a few machining operations left we are just about ready to fully assemble and test the arm. Below is a picture of all the arm parts and one the stainless steel gears used in the shoulder joint, that was machined to reduce weight.
RASC-AL Robo-Ops Competition Video
With the NASA/NIA RASC-AL Exploration Robo-Ops competition coming up next month we put together a video to summarize the design, development, and testing process of ORYX 2.0 our new rover for this tele-operated sample return mission at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. In addition to providing an overview of ORYX 2.0 this video also discusses the importance of robotic space exploration and the potential discoveries and economic resources that are in space.
We hope you will watch us in the competition, as it will be streamed live on May 31 and June 1!
Camp Reach Carnival
Yesterday we attended the WPI Camp Reach carnival, a science and engineering fair with educational games, interactive science, and engineering experiments to celebrate the programs success and for receiving the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring for 2011. Camp Reach is a math and science focused summer camp for seventh-grade girls, designed to engage young women in the excitement of engineering and science. We had a lot of fun showing people how to drive our rover and teaching them what rovers are all about.
Machining the top plate
One of the more fun parts machined for our rover was the top plate, that started out a 7.35kg piece of stock and was reduced to a mass of only 2.60kg after 138 pockets. This lightweight and very stiff plate will be ideal for mounting things to the top of the rover.
Attaching tread to the wheels
12 meters of 3M’s VHB double sided sticky tape, and the tread is now bonded to the aluminum wheels. We selected 4in wide Nitrile tread with 1/8in cleats spaced every inch. This should provide excellent durability and good traction on a variety of terrains, although their exact performance is difficult to estimate and will not be known until field testing, which will be conducted during the next week.
Drilling the wheels
Its a funny fixture but it worked…
Nearly completed chassis and suspension system
With the rocker arms completed, installation of the EPOS motor controllers, and final wiring of the motor connecting cables…the rover is almost ready to drive.
Oryx 2.0: A Planetary Exploration Mobility Platform 