Students design robot to harvest surface of the moon
| Published: 02/19/2009 |
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A team of mechanical engineering and electrical engineering seniors at Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) are working on a Robotic Lunar Excavator that is targeted for the Autonomous Lunar Regolith NASA Centennial Challenge.
Their autonomous mobile excavator is designed to harvest lunar regolith-the soil-like material covering the moon's surface. Regolith is ripe with benefits and potential that is still to be discovered. To learn more, regolith must be harvested.
Current means of excavation are too heavy, too inefficient and human-operated, making it very costly and dangerous for humans. The "Regolators," MSOE's senior design robotics team, is developing and building a robot capable of traversing the moon's surface and collecting regolith. The robot will be able to carry 150 kilograms of regolith; autonomously navigate unknown terrains; run on 150 watts or less of DC power. The robot itself will not weigh more than 70 kilograms.
Throughout their senior year, students work on a Senior Design Project. These projects are an opportunity for students to take everything they've learned in their time at MSOE and put it to use in a real-life application. Often, it's a real-world project for a company or business that's looking to solve a problem, while other projects are driven purely by a student's interests and ideas from the classroom.
It all comes to fruition right before graduation at Senior Design Day -- the culmination of all that they've learned and accomplished in this always interesting, sometimes frustrating and ultimately satisfying experience. This year's projects will be presented Friday, May 22.