[COMP] Regolith Excavation Challenge

[rgcustodio]

http://www.californiaspaceauthority.org/regolith/

Wheew I don't even have an arm on my robot...

[Admin]

hmmmm it ended on May 12 . . . for $250k its tempting enough for me to do it next year . . . but I need a team . . .

[megaman935]

Looks awesome- don't quite think I can do this, but I'd be more than happy to assist anyone with my interesting 13 year- old Ideas...

[rgcustodio]

Its actually not finished yet...

http://centennialchallenges.nasa.gov/

[sdk32285]

Admin
I have looked at this competition in the past and if you seriously want to form a team I would be interested.

[Admin]

But we live in different cities, and I dont have much starting capital to work with at the moment

However I do think our skills would compliment really well. Perhaps an online collaboration will be enough until final testing. The robot can be designed entirely in CAD, with the vision and mobility algorithm testing done on any 'ol robot sitting around . . . Without spending a penny we could then make a go/no go decision . . .

Anyone know when next year's event is?

Anyone else interested in joining the team?

Anyone willing to share a crazy out of the box idea of moving moon dirt with a robot?

These are the 2007 rules.

[sdk32285]

PGH and DC are a close enough drive.

I think we could find companies who would be willing to sponsor some of the work.

I was thinking of a tracked skid steered robot. This would allow point-turning abilities and also keep the total weight down as 2 motors/gearboxes+rubber tracks weighs less than 4 Motors and 4 wheels. (the rubber tracks are completely non space relevant but the rules allow for non space materials and mechanisms (per rule 1.5g)).

[megaman935]

well, may as well put in my 5 cents 
Ok, you could have a light pickaxe on a good servo that goes 90 degrees up, the quicklyback down, forcing the dirt into something like this in the front of the robot:
(how do you put pics on here from your desktop?)

[sdk32285]

Ok, you could have a light pickaxe on a good servo that goes 90 degrees up, the quicklyback down, forcing the dirt into something like this in the front of the robot:

The problem with just forcing the dirt like that is that after you collect the regolith you need to lift it vertically ~15cm and than dump it into a bin.

some ideas that i had was to be like a bulldozer, be like a crane, or have a scoop that lifts the dirt on to a bin on the rover than after several scoops in the bin go over and dump the dirt into their bin. This last idea is the more complicated of the three however it is also the most time efficient.

[Admin]

They allow for a maximum weight of 40kg on the bot . . . thats a lot! And in a 4m x 4m sandbox and 30 minutes time alotment Im wondering if thats enough dirt for 5 minutes for a good design. Id use something much more powerful than a servo.

I was thinking of a tracked skid steered robot. This would allow point-turning abilities and also keep the total weight down as 2 motors/gearboxes+rubber tracks weighs less than 4 Motors and 4 wheels. (the rubber tracks are completely non space relevant but the rules allow for non space materials and mechanisms (per rule 1.5g)).

This isnt actually true . . . But I dont want to offer any ideas yet so no one gets locked into my track of thought. The out of the box ideas are always the best, just hard to come up with . . .

PGH and DC are a close enough drive.

I think we could find companies who would be willing to sponsor some of the work.

Ok, lets wait until they make the next announcement for the next event. In the mean time Ill think up various ideas.

What is the density of regolith, anyway? (to calculate weight)