By: John Her (Project Manager) Moses Holley (Electronics and Control) Edgardo Villalobos (Manufacturing-Solar Panel) Johnathan Chan (Manufacturing-Chassis) Adan Rodriguez (Mission, Systems, and Test) Table of Contents Executive Summary Project Objectives The Mini Pathfinder project for Spring 2017 is a scaled and modeled after NASA’s 1997 Sojourner rover of the Pathfinder mission. It will utilize the […]
By: Moses Holley (Electronics and Control) Table of Contents Introduction The objective of this test was to gain an understanding of how RPM encoders work along with the Arduino code to manipulate them. We need the shaft encoders to detect wheel slippage and control the differential turning for the Mini Pathfinder. Subsystem Relation The RPM […]
By: Johnathan Chan (Manufacturing-Chassis) Intro Since the Mini Pathfinder has to be able to climb up stairs as large as the wheels, we need to ensure that the bogie suspension has enough of an angle to pivot to overcome the stairs. Measuring the angle of the pivoting bogie will help us determine if it can […]
By: Moses Holley (Electronics and Control) Introduction In this test, I will be testing the n20 motors at various voltages. The motors are rated for 6 volts, but the operating boosted voltage on the 3Dot board is 5 volts. The battery is rated at 3.6 volts, should we tap directly into the battery, but is […]
By: Moses Holley (Electronics and Control) Table of Contents Introduction The objective of this trade off study is to select an electrical device that can detect RPMs for our motors. One way RPM detection is important for our project would be our wheel slip detection. Subsystem Relation On the subsystem level, there are many things […]
Solar Cell Blog Post By: Edgardo Villalobos (Manufacturing-Solar Panel) Introduction The mini pathfinder will utilize one small encapsulated 5V 200mA solar cell. The reason for this is because it requires less cells to come up with the voltage and current required to charge the battery than if using the normal type cells, meaning less real […]
By: Moses Holley (Electronics and Control) Introduction The objective of this trade off study is to find a motor that meets our robots requirements and also satisfies mission verification. Subsystem Relation Motor selection ultimately depended on the Mini Pathfinder’s size. Initially, the customer wanted a rover that could fit in one’s pocket and also in […]
By: John Her (Project Manager) Introduction The Mini Pathfinder mission has changed since the PDD where it will no longer participate with other robots in a game. Instead, the Mini Pathfinder will have the same mission as the Spring 17’ Pathfinder but scaled down. New Mission Profile We will remotely traverse a course of approximately […]
By: Johnathan Chan (Manufacturing-Chassis) Intro The size of the Mini Pathfinder will be determined by the size of the 3DoT board. The chassis should the the minimum size needed to encompass the 3DoT. Since the 3DoT has dimensions of 70mm in length and 35mm in width, we used this as part of the basis of […]