Mars Rover Simulation

The Task

The class has to build two robots: the rover that will scout the area and another robot that will take the rover to the desired location on campus, the spaceship.

The spaceship has to run autonomously and has to be power through solar panels. This is to simulate the fact that batteries can only be powered through natural resources on Mars.

On the other hand, the rover can be powered with batteries and has to be controlled via wireless connection.

The rover is in charge of scouting the unknown area, taking pictures, and retrieving a specific item. After completing the tasks, the team needs to guide the robot with the item back to the spaceship.

The Spaceship

The spaceship was designed to have a rigid structure that can carry a lot of weight. The solar panels were placed at the front of the robot as it was the only place it wouldn't get in the way. The design had an open roof to prevent issues with fitting the rover and to reduce weight.

A range sensor is also placed at the front of the robot to prevent the robot from running into a wall. If it was triggered, the code will know to turn back into the right direction.

A ramp is placed at the back to allow the rover easy access off and on the spaceship.

The Rover

There are two designs for the rover that have to be made each with the intent to perform the same tasks. The design that was chosen is a more compact version of the first.

The rover is equipped with two Lego Mindstorm bricks, two motors for moving, two fixed webcams, a camera to take pictures, a motor to active the camera, and a portable router.

The rover's controls were programmed with HTML on a website with simple commands to go forward, backwards, turn, or take a picture. The webcams will also be displayed on this website so the controller knows where they are. The command to take a picture will make the rover rotate a motor a certain amount to activate the shutter and turn back to its original position.