Alabama Lunabotics sweeps KSC competition

Tuscaloosa CBS42.com

Alabama Lunabotics, a team of students from The University of Alabama and Shelton State Community College, won the top prize in the NASA Lunabotics Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The week-long contest included more than 50 teams from universities around the world.

On May 26, the last day of the contest, NASA officials announced Alabama Lunabotics notched the most points in the competition, winning the Joe Kosmo Award for Excellence. The team also won first place for its presentation and demonstration, first place for team spirit and second place in the mining portion of the competition.

In all, Alabama Lunabotics won $8,000 to use for next year’s competition, and NASA will pay for this year’s team and faculty adviser to participate at one of NASA’s remote research and technology tests. They also received an invitation to watch a spacecraft launch at Kennedy Space Center as guests of NASA.

The group was led by experienced students marking their second or third year on the team. In 2010, the first year NASA held the competition, Alabama Lunabotics placed sixth, and, in 2011, the team placed fourth, said Dr. Kenneth Ricks, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and the team’s faculty adviser.

“The students on this UA team are very talented engineers with competition experience,” Ricks said. “That experience of being at the competition before is very valuable, so they knew what had to be done to be competitive.”

Excerpt from full article, HERE.

University of Alabama team readies for 3rd NASA Lunabotics competition at KSC, May 21-27

Early strength testing "using last year's wheels on a new base."

Alabama Lunabotics, a team of students from The University of Alabama and Shelton State Community College, will compete in the 3rd annual NASA Lunabotics Mining Competition, May 21-27, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Competing against 66 teams from all over the world, the University of Alabama team builds on past solid showings, placing fourth last year. 

Their remote-operated robot is designed to collect at least 10 kilograms of a lunar regolith simulant in 10 minutes. As Apollo astronauts learned, talcum-grained, but highly abrasive lunar dust (and NASA's proxies) presents an immediate engineering test

Contest judging will be based on their vehicle's weight, the rate and weight of material excavated, moved and redeposited, and bandwidth used in teleoperation. Teams will be judged on its engineering write-ups and less tangible qualities such as "community outreach, team spirit and the multidisciplinary level of the team."

"We decided to do a complete re-design of our robot because of the change in dimensions after last year's competition," writes the team on their website. "Our competition robot from last year is used as an educational tool. We carried several of the concepts over from last year, one of them being a sweeping wheel design."

One of the problems with driving on an extremely powdery and soft surface like the moon is gaining traction. 

Conventional steering styles dig into the driving surface while turning. Skid-steering, like a tank, is "exceptionally bad with this, especially when your vehicle has a large mass." 

Because the NASA Lunabotics competition revolves around mining and transporting, teams are guaranteed "high mass scenarios." The Alabama Lunabotics teams has chosen to operate each wheel independently, and to sweep them to turn in one spot, or move sideways, while maintaining a "positive driving style."

Alabama Lunabotics sneak-preview video spotlighting "The Base"

PANTERA: Lunar Mining Excavator

The 2012 NASA Lunabotics Competition is an international competition that challenges students against different universities in order to create a lunar excavator, called a Lunabot, which can mine and deposit a minimum of 10 kilograms of lunar simulant within 10 minutes. NASA will directly benefit from the competition by encouraging the development of innovative lunar excavators, which may result in clever ideas and solutions that could be applied to an actual lunar excavation or payload. Complexities of the challenge include the abrasive characteristic of the BP-1 simulant, weight and size limitations and the ability to tele-robotically control the robot from a remote mission control center. In order to overcome these complexities, information was gathered, analyzed and innovative drive, collection and dumping systems were introduced. With the combination of these systems in place, the FIU Lunabotics robot, Pantera, was born.

2012 Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics

Narine Kelvin Harrylall, Ramon Garo, Janet F. Reyes

Dr. Sabri Tosunoglu

Florida International University
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering

This paper presents the design and development of a lunar mining excavator. After extensive research, the evolution of conceptual designs and finite element analysis simulations, the model was then fabricated. Several past, current and future technologies that could be used as an application for lunar excavators were examined. These included surface mining technologies, the design of previous lunar simulant excavators and robotic rovers that successfully operated on the Moon and Mars.

Based on the knowledge gained from this research, ideas were formed and 3D models were created on SolidWorks. Stress, strain and maximum displacements of different sections of the robot were then created and analyzed to ensure a sturdy, reliable and efficient robot.

The paper is organized as follows: An outline of the robot is demonstrated in Section 2. Conceptual models and the final design are presented in Section 3. The development and fabrication of the different sections of the robot are described in Section 4. In Section 5, the results of the stress, strain and displacement studies are shown and analyzed. Finally, Section 6 summarizes conclusions and outlines plans for future work.

The design of Pantera primarily focused on three different systems. These systems included: • Mobility system • Dumping system • Collection system.

The team set out to build a robot that was compact and efficient. With that in mind, the maximum dimensions of the robot were limited to 1.5 m in length, 0.75 m in width and 0.75 m in height. The weight limit created was 80 kg (~176lbs), which was found by comparing the weights of different prototype lunar mining excavators. The robot also needed to have a rapid collection and dumping rate. Based on research undertaken, a collection and dumping rate of 15.8 kg of simulant per minute was set out to be achieved.

Review the research (PDF) HERE.

The Florida Space Grant Consortium is supporting five teams from Florida universities competing in the Third Annual Lunabotics Mining Competition to be held at the Visitor Complex, Kennedy Space Center, May 21-26, 2012.

UNH 'LunaCats' prowl space, children's museum

UNH student Jaron Peters (right) helps Eko Cronin-
Deausealt, 5, drive a lunar robot at the Children's
Museum of New Hampshire in Dover, Monday, Feb. 20
[EJ Hersom/Fosters Daily Democrat].

Andrea Bulfinch
Fosters Daily Democrat
   
Dover, New Hampshire: Children were treated to an out-of-this-world engineering experience by members of the University of New Hampshire lunar robotics team, LunaCats, who demonstrated one of their creations at the Dover Childrens Museum.

The LunaCats design and build robotic excavators intended to mine lunar soil for a NASA competition. This year's team is comprised of seniors in the mechanical engineering, computer sciences, and computer engineering majors. As part of the competition, NASA mandates each team create an outreach program, benefiting the local community and the demonstration at the children's museum was part of that.

"I think the best part is that it's hands-on," Camille Poulin, student, said as she stood Monday afternoon surrounded by parents, children and her peers all watching as youngsters took turns operating the machine, the end result of a yearlong project.

The first half of the school year consists of designing and analyzing the excavator. The second half is dedicated to building and testing the machine.

Students brought last year's model to the museum on Monday and said they are completely redesigning the bot for 2012.

The seven students fund raise to both create the excavator and enter the competition, coordinating everything from funding, to the initial design, to travel to compete. They'll also complete a systems engineering paper and a presentation before NASA officials. The winning team will be awarded a $5,000 scholarship.

Sixty teams from around the world compete on May 21 through 26 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Last year, the 2010-2011 UNH LunaCats team was the first team from UNH to compete in the NASA Lunabotics Mining Competition. The team was unable to finish the competition due to an unforeseen mechanical failure involving the drive train, which caused limited mobility.

The LunaCats design and build robotic excavators intended to mine lunar soil for a NASA competition. This year's team is comprised of seniors in the mechanical engineering, computer sciences, and computer engineering majors. As part of the competition, NASA mandates each team create an outreach program, benefiting the local community and the demonstration at the children's museum was part of that.

Read the full article HERE.