Mars Rover Team

Background

The Northeastern Mars Rover Team builds a mock mars rover to compete at URC (university rover competition) as well as CIRC (Canadian international rover competition) every year. We engineer the rover to complete challenges including autonomous navigation, life detection, equipment servicing, and long distance terrain traversal. Every year we work to upgrade our rover, Watney, to be more capable in completing these challenges.

I have been with the Mars Rover Team since my first semester at Northeastern, and have attended two competitons in Utah and Canada, where we placed 2nd and 6th respectively.

As a mechanical co-lead, I manage task delegation and high level progress for the mechanical subteam and coordinate tasks with electrical and software teams. I also help to oversee onboarding and training new members.

Rover has provided me with so much experience in rapid prototyping, mechanical design, and team leadership. Workign with such a great team has undoubtedly been one of the most valuable experiences i've had at Northeastern.

Project Breakdown

Wheel Redesign

Redesigned the rover's wheels for improved stiffness and ground clearance after the original design deformed under load and lost traction on rough terrain.

SolidWorks FDM Printing Materials Selection Iterative Testing

End Effector / Gripper

Reworked the gripper's jaw geometry and actuation linkage to reliably insert a USB drive and XLR connector into a mock lander panel for the equipment servicing task.

SolidWorks Mechanism Design Hardware Integration FDM Printing