Excavator Mechanical Engineer
For this lunar mining competition, the excavator is the central mechanism that allows our robot to collect gravel for points. Our robot featured a rotating conveyor belt with teethed grousers that act as scoops. To rotate in and out of its digging position, the robot uses a chain and sprocket system controlled by a car window motor and to translate in and out of the ground, the excavator has an internal lead screw with a motorized screw. For dust protective features, our excavator had polycarbonate side plates lined with brushes.
My main contributions to the excavator subteam were designing and manufacturing the belt tensioner, the dust-protective side plates, and the internal structure and carriage system. I was also the main contributor for our systems engineering paper for which we were awarded the ‘Leaps and Bounds Systems Engineering Award’ by NASA.
Public Outreach Officer
As a public outreach officer, I was tasked with securing funding from both third-party companies and from university programs. I was also responsible for our poster and all of our team’s videos for project presentation. In total, we were able to raise $11,500 in cash sponsorships and supplies.
Furthermore, as part of the competition, we organized public outreach events for K-12 students to help usher in the next generation of engineers. I personally set up a brainstorming workshop for high school juniors where they were tasked with coming up with a sensors solution for Amazon delivery quadcopters.
Associated Videos and Documents
The first two videos here are videos that I created for our first and second rounds of funding.
The third video is the video I edited for WPI Project Presentation Day.
Below the videos is our poster, systems engineering paper, public outreach report, and final paper.
WPI Tinkerbox Cohort 6 Sponsorship Video
WPI TinkerboxCohort 7 Sponsorship Video
WPI Project Presentation Day Introduction Video