McMaster Mars Rover Team, VIPER V24 Power Module

The McMaster Mars Rover Team, or MMRT, unites almost 80 passionate space enthusiasts within the McMaster community driven by a shared love for ever-evolving robotic technology. As part of our team, members gain unique opportunities to solve complex technical problems and gain invaluable real-world experiences. The team is composed of four different subteams, including electrical, software, mechanical and science. Together, they work together to design a functional Mars Rover which will compete in international competitions.

This year, MMRT attended the Canadian International Rover Challenge (CIRC) with the V1.5 Rover named Faraday, placing 4th out of 17 teams and 1st in Canada. This competition took place in Drumheller, Alberta where five challenges evaluated different aspects of the Rover, such as vision systems, robotic arm dexterity, autonomous navigation, and soil analysis.

On MMRT, the electrical team designs and assembles printed circuit boards (PCBs) and cable assemblies to compose the rover electronics. Designs range from custom power supplies to control modules that actuate the motors for the robotic arm, obtain GPS information from satellites, manage battery state of charge and current draw, and much more. They collaborates closely with the other sub-teams to debug issues with the rover and determine PCB and cable placement.

The team is currently in the development phase of their V2 rover, named Maxwell, incorporating all the lessons learned from Faraday. The electrical team is designing a whole new set of PCBs for the power and control systems. One of the new projects is the VIPER power distribution system. This is a modular system in which different VIPER boards, responsible for different power rails, are plugged into a backplane board. The backplane board enables and monitors this power as it distributes it to the rest of the rover.

VIPER V24 is one of the modular PCBs that will plug into the backplane. The board features a 4-phase buck converter expecting to take in battery voltage ranging from 39.6V to 50.4V and output a regulated 24V. The input and output of this board is managed through a single connector attaching to the VIPER backplane while also featuring connectivity for additional telemetry through I2C and status signals. The wide input buck converter is based on a multi-phase design using MAX15157B controllers synced in parallel to ensure appropriate load sharing between phases. The design is meant to be re-usable for future projects and other module cards.

As the next international competition is quickly approaching, support from PCBWay would be greatly appreciated as the team would be able to manufacture, test, and integrate their PCBs in a timely manner. After VIPER V24 is manufactured and tested, the team can continue with their designs on the other modular cards, including VIPER V12, VIPER V19/48 and VIPER V5/3.3, using their learnings and results. MMRT is thankful for the opportunity to work with PCBWay and is grateful for their support.