NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center that is owned by NASA and managed by the California Institute of Technology. The company is devoted to the exploration and understanding of outer space. Some of JPL’s most notable projects are the Mars Exploration Rovers such as Curiosity and Opportunity.
Open Source Rover
Robotics Engineering Intern
May 2017 - August 2017
The model Mars rover, ROV-E, had spent the last few years making appearances at JPL’s largest outreach events and demonstrating its suspension system and lightweight design by smoothly driving over a row of volunteer audience members. I was hired by JPL to design the next generation of academic outreach rover-- one that moved the audience from under the rover into the engineer’s seat. Our objectives were to produce an open-source, rebuildable version of the ROV-E rover, but reduce the budget of $30,000 per rover down to $2,500 in order to make the open source project accessible to the public.
The redesign features a similar rocker bogie suspension system to ROV-E and the Mars Rover, but consists of exclusively commercial, off-the-shelf parts. We chose to use standardized pattern plates and brackets as our main chassis because it made the body easily expandable at a low effort and a low cost to the customer. It also avoids the task of drilling holes during the assembly, and avoids requiring the customer to have access to power tools or custom made parts. The Open Source rover is controlled with a mobile phone app and has a software architecture that is designed to be editable with entry level programming knowledge.
The primary purpose of this project was to design a robot that could be built by inexperienced engineers. This target audience requires diligent documentation of parts and processes in accessible language and images. The rover was assembled in CAD alongside it’s actual assembly and was documented at every step with exploded views. The electrical assemblies were documented with circuit diagrams and high level flow charts. Software documentation was completed after the conclusion of my internship.
Skills Developed:
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Dynamic Modeling
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Raspberry Pi
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SolidWorks
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3D Printing
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Python
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Circuit Design
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Power Supply Design
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Soldering
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Cable Management
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Project Management
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Technical Writing
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Public Speaking