Overview

Purpose: Prototype CubeRover for Lunar Scouting Mission

Creator: Jay Jasper, 16-861 class project

My Role: Project co-lead, mechanical lead, CAD, machining

Sponsors:Carnegie Mellon University, Maxon Motors, Texas Instruments

Form

Drivetrain:

• Four 20cm wheels
• Differential drivetrain powered by Maxon BLDC motors through planetary gearboxes
• Wheel drive modules contain motors and batteries, keeping the CG low
• 1DOF kinematic suspension

Unfolding:

• Folds into a 30x30x30 cm cube for transit
• Unfolding energy supplied by compression springs
• Five barrel cams transform spring energy into the translations and rotations that unfold the robot

Controls: NVIDIA Tegra K1 Jetson

• Quad-core Cortex-A15 @2.32 GHz
• Single-core Cortex-A15 shadow core for low power operations
• Kepler GPU with 192 CUDA cores
• Linux SBC

Sensors:

• Motor hall effect sensors

Chassis: Aluminum semimonocoque

Function

Scout: A fast-paced 2km range allows Tetramorph to serve as a scout for another rover or lander.

Explore: Large wheels, thick grousers, and strong motors provide Tetramorph with oversized terrain-handing capabilities, even under Earth's gravity.

Survey: The powerful onboard processor enables onboard, realtime 3D terrain mapping.