Hope
College Engineering Department
Research Experiences for Undergraduates
Summer 2008
Project Summary
Research Experiences for Undergraduates
Summer 2008
Project Summary
|
Hope
College Engineering Department Research Experiences for Undergraduates Summer 2008 Project Summary |
| Project Title: | Implementation and Control of a Reconfigurable 4-Tetrahedral Robot |
| Student Name: | Steve Barbachyn |
| Student's Home Institution: | Hope College |
| Research Advisor: | Dr. Miguel Abrahantes |
| Source of Support: | This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under NSF-REU Grant No. PHY-0452206, Michigan Space Grant Consortium, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center. |
In an effort to improve upon current NASA rover technologies, the Goddard Space Flight Center commissioned a research and development team in 2000 to study tetrahedral robotics. A tetrahedral robot is composed of tetrahedral cells made up of extendable and contractible struts. The robot is able to navigate difficult terrain inaccessible to current rovers through the extension and contraction of these struts. This year, our goal was to improve upon the previous prototype 4-Tetrahedral robot’s interface and hardware. This involved the implementation of new, off-the-market microprocessors and a proportional, integral, and derivative control (PID) for the struts. It also consisted of the refinement of the previous structure using custom nodes, consolidated wiring, and wireless computer-to-robot communication. This was done in an effort to test different controls and custom walking gaits for a 4-Tetrahedral robot, the purpose of which is to advance tetrahedral robotics research.
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