NASA R.M.C.
Each year, NASA hosts the Robotic Mining Challenge (R.M.C.) for college level students at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This involves designing and constructing a robot capable of navigating obstacles, excavating a lunar regolith simulant, and depositing the mined material. Our team consisted of mechanical engineers, computer scientists, and electrical engineers. The first semester that I joined, the Spring of 2019, was during the build phase of the robot shown left. The second semester, the Fall of 2019, was the design phase for a robot that will be built this upcoming Spring. The design for that robot can be seen on the right.
Fall 2019
In the Fall of 2019 I designed the mining system of the new robot. The design utilizes two adjacent trenchers which slide down along a rail and into the soil. The trencher system, along with the rest of the robot, are to be constructed Spring 2020. Although I have graduated, I pre-arranged the sourcing of the parts and ensured the parts that will be manufactured are within the manufacturing capabilities of MSU’s Machine Shop. I am confident this system will operate efficiently, effectively, and highly competitively. I am very eager to see its performance during the 2020 competition this Spring.
Spring 2019
During the Spring of 2019, a groupmate and I designed and constructed a conveyor system to store and deposit collected material. The conveyor was designed to simply and easily integrate into both the pre-existing electronic control system and mechanical system. We employed SolidWorks in our design process, and manufactured the parts ourselves using the Machine Shop at MSU.