Embedded Files
BYU Mars Rover Mechanical Lead - 1 Year
BYU Mars Rover Mechanical Lead - 1 Year
As the Mechanical Team Lead for the BYU Mars Rover team, I led the design, manufacturing, and integration of mechanical systems for a competition rover. Working with a multidisciplinary team, I helped guide the development process from initial concepts through fabrication, assembly, and testing. This role gave me valuable experience in mechanical design, project management, system integration, and collaborative engineering while working to meet demanding performance and reliability requirements.
Mounting System Upgrade
The University Rover Challenge requires each rover to be able to complete four different tasks, Science, Delivery, Equipment Servicing, and Autonomy. Each of these tasks requires different apparatus to be mounted to the rover. Because of time and manpower restraints the mounting system stood out to me as a key change my team could work on.
Old Mounting System
Old Mounting System
The old mounting system was a prebuilt system the previous team had purchased. This system required lining up two flat plates, the mounting plate and a matching plate on the task gear, then securing four bolts. Depending on the people and task apparatus this could require up to four people and two minutes.
New Mounting System
New Mounting System
The new mounting system swaps the four bolts for two T-Slots. Using mating geometry long T-nuts attached to the task apparatus can easily slide into the mating T-slots on the mounting plate. This significantly reduced time and people required to swap out the task apparatus. Now one person could swap the mounted hardware in less then 15 seconds.
Wheel Upgrade
Over the course of system requirement and conceptual design reviews we narrowed on our wheels as a potentially impactful change.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse