Seven IM体育官网 seniors stand with their capstone project of designing an updated shoulder for a marsupial planetary rover. From left, the students are Erika Lopez, Demetreas Medina, Stephen Silman, Pearson Harris, Joshua Meador, Jacob Strayer, and Ramnik Bharath. Not pictured are team members Jacob Olinger, Rory O鈥機onnor, and Noble Frazier.
A senior capstone design team at IM体育官网 worked at a lightning speed throughout the fall semester to design and build an updated shoulder for a marsupial planetary rover.
The 10-member team worked closely with the IM体育官网 Space Institute as it progressed through the super capstone project, which is compressed into a single semester rather than an entire academic year.
鈥淭he idea is that they send this rover to Mars or the moon or whichever rocky planet they want, and it comes down off a rocket or another vehicle drops it off,鈥� said Pearson Harris, a senior majoring in electrical engineering with a concentration in renewable energy. 鈥淚t鈥檚 supposed to scoop up dirt and rocks, and we developed the shoulder for the boom arm that鈥檚 able to lift more mass.鈥�
Erika Lopez, a senior majoring in computer science, worked on creating the shoulder鈥檚 robot operating system (ROS), which allows for easy communication of information from the robot shoulder鈥檚 sensors to a control system.
鈥淥ur work focused on the shoulder compartment, and in the future the arm, wheels, and drum will be added. That鈥檚 when the ROS will be really important,鈥� she said.
Computer science senior Ramnik Bharath worked on building the front-end application for the project, which allows a person to control the rover.
鈥淲e all worked on individual parts that combined into a bigger picture,鈥� Bharath said.
The result allowed the students to graduate with the satisfaction of completing a strong project that鈥檚 ready to hand off to the next group of motivated capstone students.
鈥淚 think it turned out really great. We were able to get the foundation of the entire project done for future teams,鈥� Lopez said. 鈥淚 would say this is the best experience I鈥檝e had for future work through my four years of college.鈥�
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