Self-driving NASA Mars Miner
Details
LUNABOTICS is an Artemis Student Challenge to educate college students on NASA Systems Engineering. Participating teams design and build a prototype robot for long-term human presence on Mars. During the simulation, robots must overcome regolith simulants, resources, weight, size, and remote/autonomous operations.
I was part of Illinois Tech’s automation team. We worked closely with fellow mechanical and electrical engineers to build a self-maneuvered system for the robot.
Our main achievements:
- Created a neural obstacle detection system using Kinect’s depth sensors, LibFreenect, and OpenCV
- Integrated LIDAR and Adafruit Capacitive touch sensors to develop a fully automated robot maneuvering system
- Designed manual control system fall-back
- Successfully ran self-driving test drives on real mining evironment.
Personal Note: My desire to participate in this competition stemmed from watching Vietnam Robocon, a robot contest for college students across the country, during my childhood. Vietnam’s tremendous effort in promoting STEM competitions/programs on national television during the 2000s incited my passion for STEMs. I hope Vietnamese govenment and education organizations can continue their supports for these programs in the future.