Wednesday 21 March 2018

Robotics With Ms Chowfin

My Robotics Journey:
My robotics journey in Ms Chowfin's class has been about discovering various types of basic robots including: Edison, Ozobot and Sphero. I liked using Sphero the best because I found it really fun and exciting to control. I also liked using the Ozobot because it was interesting being able to draw the lines for it to follow. Edison was the robot that in the end we decided to use for our prototype because of its stability. Also our journey in robotics has been about designing a prototype of a spacecraft that could potentially land on the surface of mars.

We have been designing a prototype of a robot that could potentially land on mars, bring back data and move around on the mars surface. So originally we did research and visited websites to find out more about mars and its surface. In class we discussed possible issues we could have while being on mars including: sand dunes and larges rocks/minerals.

Research:
Some of the information I discovered while researching was:Mars is red in color this is how it got its name ‘The Red Planet’. Mars is known for its many rocks and minerals this will affect our spacecraft when it’s moving around. Mars also has wind formed dunes so we will have to consider whether our design will be able to go over or around these. The layers of mars and earth are also very similar mars has an atmosphere, crust, mantle and core. Also mars has craters and gullies. However mars has no plate tectonics.

Our Design:
Our design was made from Lego parts attached to the Edison. It doesn't exactly look like our original design however it's an improvement. My group was definitely successful in creating a prototype. We had included: a drill, cameras, and magnets for collecting data. It would theoretically be nuclear powered and it would be controlled from the Edison app. It was definitely a good learning process.
Our lander will be powered by nuclear battery.We have tracks rather than wheels because of the sand dunes on mars. The tracks will help us navigate the mars terrain. Also we have a camera so we can collect information about mars. Another thing our spacecraft has is magnets to collect metals from mars. Our spacecraft also has a drill so that we can dig down into the surface of mars and collect samples.

This was our original drawing of our prototype: