21 Jun Colorado School of Mines, Week 2

It’s already the end of week 2 at the RoSE lab at Colorado School of Mines. This week felt like it flew by as we continued our work on the IPEx Rover. This week was similar to last week we continued to research and find parts to build the rover. I have been focusing on the avionics side of the rover dealing with the brains, sensors, and motor controllers of the rover.

CAD Model of the Avionics box

I learned a lot more about the process that engineers have to go through before even buying the parts they plan on using, we used many different mathematical ways to choose everything that would be bought and used in the build. This week was all about finalizing and deciding on parts for the rover because on Monday we have what’s called PDR (preliminary design review) where we present our findings and choices of parts and structure for the rover along with all the evidence and math to back it up to Dr. Frankie Zhu and anyone else who wants to come see the work we have been doing. Let’s begin at the start of the week Monday and Tuesday was more research into components and controllers for the motors that were chosen do drive the wheels and to lift the arm up and down. Later at the end this week I found out I can use one of the same controllers used to lift the arms to drive the motor that will spin the bucket to excavate the Regolith (Moon Dirt).

Diagram of the Avionics architecture for the IPEx Rover

On Wednesday I was tasked to find a battery that would power the whole rover, when we first talked about the solutions to the battery we came up with three different solutions, the first being one 24 volt battery power the whole rover, the second being 2 12 volt batteries connected to power the whole rover, and the last being 2 smaller 24 volt batteries that would be separate and power different parts of the rover. I learned what a decision matrix was and how to use it and used three of them to narrow down on which battery we wanted and eventually landed on 2 24 volt batteries that are smaller and cheaper, and most of all weren’t that heavy because we have to keep the total weight under 30kg and batteries can get heavy fast. The last two days was all about preparing for the PDR presentation on Monday and making sure we did all the correct calculations and have the right numbers. Last week I made a diagram of the avionics used in the rover and updated them this week now that we have all the components chosen so we know what the electronics are going to look like and how they are going to wire together. This week I also learned how to make a CAD model (Computer Aided Design) and made the box that will hold all of the avionics on the rover. It took me a minute to learn and at the start of the week had no I deal what I was doing to make this model and struggled to make even an empty box. By the end of the week I started to figure out how CAD works and I made the rough model of the box that I will also be presenting on Monday.

Sunset bike ride north of Golden, CO

Outside of the lab this week I have been enjoying my time going to the rec center with Luke and Gunnar swimming some days and playing Basket Ball others. I have also continued to go on a bike ride every night and see some where new. These rides are starting to get long the further and further I go to find somewhere I haven’t yet explored. I am enjoying all that golden has to offer and found the best Ice cream to just be right down the road and had a great time going there with Luke and Gunnar. I am super exited to continue on everything next week and see what the next steps are to continue progress on IPEx.