The UCL Rover team consists of a devoted team of interdisciplinary students from University College London brought together by the shared passion for the exploration of Mars. Our project aims to build a Mars Rover, much like NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance, to compete in the European Rover Challenge. Read on to find out more about our team and what drives us.
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<aside> 💡 Find out more about Mars here!
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<aside> 💡 Did you know?
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Of course, due to the difference in distance from the sun and the speed of orbit, time passes differently on Mars than on Earth, but just how different?
| Earth | Mars | |
|---|---|---|
| Day | 23 hours 56 minutes | 24 hours 37 minutes |
| Year | 365.25 Days | 687 Earth Days |
Our 6-degree-of-freedom robotic arm is the articulated interface between the Rover and the outside world. Precise calculations and advanced control systems ensure the robotic arm collaborates with other subsystems to perform complex tasks.
Project highlight:
Preparing a dynamic model of the robotic arm to optimise the control strategy and improve the mechanical design.
The Base Station is the Rover’s control hub, where our team orchestrates the rover's movement across the hazardous Martian terrain. Through wireless communication, we relay commands to the Robotic Arm during the Maintenance Task and receive valuable real-time data during the Autonomous Navigation Task to ensure we perform the mission correctly.
Project highlight:
Selecting the right transceivers and antennas for our purpose, while developing a user interface to remotely control the Rover.
The science cache is a representation of interdisciplinary precision engineering, allowing our Rover to autonomously collect samples and store them for later data analysis. In addition to this, the landscape and terrain properties are determined to distinguish the most important sites to visit, making our operations more valuable and effective.
Project highlight:
Developing an auger drill mechanism coupled with a replaceable storage device that can be weighed precisely and sealed completely to prevent spillages and external contamination.