Improving the Traction of a Legged Rover: A Biomimetic Approach

Hexapod robots are becoming increasingly popular for navigating and exploring irregular and inhospitable environments. The Lunar Zebro is such a hexapod robot that has been developed to be the lightest and smallest rover to explore the moon. The purpose of the Lunar Zebro is to navigate the surface of the moon where it will encounter difficult...

A system level performance analysis method for the design of a C-shape hexapod leg operating on compactive terrain

Remotely controlled vehicles have gained increased interest and application, like the exploration of inhospitable environments. To this end hexapods with C-shape locomotors are particularly suitable because these vehicles possess both the efficiency of wheels and the climbing capabilities of legged robots. Currently all C-legged hexapods are...

Communications architecture for Martian surface exploration with a swarm of wind-driven rovers

This decade has seen growing interest in Mars exploration. Advances in distributed systems, miniaturization and commoditization of space electronics and innovations in communications permit us to rethink the current paradigm of relying on a few heavy, slow and expensive high-tech rovers for Mars surface exploration. In this work, we address the...

Developing thermal testing methods for a locomotion system of a Phobos rover

In 2024, a rover will leave Earth on a daring mission to explore Phobos, one of the two moons of Mars. Phobos has a severe thermal environment, with surface temperatures ranging from -153 °C to +57 °C and an 8-hour diurnal cycle. This work focuses on validating the performance of the locomotion system of the Mars Moon eXploration (MMX) rover....

High precision positioning system for Ghana

In this report, the design process of a high precision positioning system for Ghana is described. The system consists of two devices, a base station and a user operated rover. These devices provide precision positioning, using dual frequency receivers and the principle of differential positioning. The high precision positioning system can be...

Feasibility Study of LUFAR

With the steady increase in space missions, enabled through technological advances and increase of commercialisation within the space flight industry, both more and increasingly complex missions can be designed for space. To this end, the Lunar Zebro project competes within this field through its small lunar rover design, drastically decreasing...

Design of the locomotion subsystem for the Lunar Zebro: A design and implementation to ensure that Zebro can thrive on the moon

This report covers the development of the Locomotion system for the Lunar Zebro that is responsible for the positioning control of the six legs and the operating of the solar panel. It covers the initial problem analysis, requirement discovery, conceptual design, part identification for implementation, implementation and the first tests, their...

Zebro Onboard Navigation System (ONS)

Granual Jamming Gripper: The Design of a Universal Gripper And Accompanying Capacitive Sensor Array

This document describes the design and modification of a Universal Jamming Gripper. On the existing idea is expanded in such a way that it can be used in a low power environment. For the gripper a capacitive sensor is proposed to measure the deformation of the flexible part. This measurement can be used to aid in centring an object in the...