Hope College Engineering Department Research Experiences for Undergraduates Summer 2007 Project Summary

A major NASA project is the improvement of current rover technology. Therefore, Goddard Space Flight Center commissioned a research and development team in 2000 involved in tetrahedral robotics. A tetrahedral rover is composed of extendable and contractible struts that are arranged in tetrahedral cells. The rover moves from extension and contraction of these struts. This year, our goal was the development and creation of a 4-tetrahedral robot. The prototype robot was constructed from off-the-market items along with 2 separate microprocessors for the autonomous control. Linked with a computer that utilized custom programmed interfaces, the robot can walk manually or with pre-programmed gaits. The overall purpose of this prototype robot is to experiment with different types of controls and gaits.