Hope College Engineering Department
Research Experiences for Undergraduates
Summer 2009
Project Summary

 

Project Title: Implementation and Design of Tetrahedral Robots
Student Name: Peter Doorn
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, the Hope College Dean for the Natural and Applied Sciences Office, National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center, and Hope College Engineering Department.

A tetrahedral robot is an alternative to traditional wheeled rover designs that is composed of tetrahedral cells made up of extendable and contractible struts. Distorting its shape by extending and contracting struts allows the robot to be able to navigate difficult terrain inaccessible to current rovers. Work completed at Hope College in the past produced an operational but unreliable 4-tetrahedral (4-Tet) robot. Research during the summer of 2009 focused on improving the reliability of the current robot. This was done by refining both the movement and the physical structure of the robot using a MATLAB™ based interface to simulate proposed changes. In addition to the work with the 4-Tet, initial design work for the construction of a robot consisting of 8 tetrahedral cells has been started. Completion of the 8-Tet robot will require the implementation of two onboard microcontrollers. These microcontrollers will need to be able to interface with MATLAB™ based control programs to successfully move the robot. When completed, the 8-Tet will give us a platform to test more complex movements furthering knowledge of the operation of tetrahedral robots.

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