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Team Antriksh Rover

About Team Antriksh

Team Antriksh is a group of enthusiastic undergraduate students from a wide array of disciplines.

The primary principles that have been instrumental in the success our arduous journey so far, are fundamentally to innovate, educate and compete. Innovation involves the creativity of our members to build a rover prototype capable of performing specific tasks under given constraints. Our involvement in the community encourages students to discover the world of science and engineering.

Founded in 2018, Team Antriksh worked on NASA Goddard American Astronaut Society's CanSat in the year 2018-2019.

Our mission was to explore the use of auto-gyro descent control of a science payload when released from the launch vehicle for our team ranked 58th worldwide on our very first attempt at CanSat.

Currently, our goal is to build and create advanced rover prototypes

are to compete in Mars Society' University Rover Challenge and various similar competitions.

About URC

The University Rover Challenge (URC) is a premier robotics competition open for college students across the globe. The competition challenges student teams to design and build the next generation of Mars rovers.

The URC is held annually at the Mar’s Society’s Mars Desert Research Station near Hanksville, Utah. It’s an arid desert location roughly analogous to that of Mars. To qualify, teams must submit a Preliminary Design Review (PDR), as well as a more thorough System Acceptance Review (SAR).

SAR is competitive review and requires both written and video components. The competition consists of four tasks:

· Autonomous Traversal

The rover is given coordinates to travel towards without any driver control. Obstacles such as large boulders are overcome autonomously and without intervention.

· 3Extreme Retrieval & Delivery:

The rover is driven through rough terrain, and picks up items such as a tool box, and delivers it to a predetermined location.

· Equipment Servicing

The rover completes several dexterous tasks such as turning knobs and plugging in connectors in this particular task.

· Science Cache

The rover takes measurements at various sites, and drills into the soil to take samples. The sample is then subjected to onboard tests and is also sealed and stored for further off-board analysis followed by a presentation on the test samples and the results achieved.

About Subsystems

Our team is divided into five major subsystems which ensures the smooth operation of each and every sector of the project. The primary subsystems are as follows:

· Computers & AI

The Computers and AI subsystem create the brains of the rover, allowing it to be operated when it is out of sight of the driver. The group works with depth sensors, drive algorithms, inverse kinematics, computer vision, as well as interfacing with different controllers to make sure the rover operates quickly and intuitively for the driver. The software team also creates the user interfaces that the drivers use to control the rover including camera feeds, on screen controls for precision-based operations such as working with the science system, and map-based coordinate plotting.

· Electronics & Communication

The Electronics & Communication Subsystem designs the architecture of electrical hardware that runs motors and sensors on the rove, including the GPS system. It also designs the power distribution system and writes code to interface with electronics. Typical work for a member of this subsystem includes creating printed circuit boards, soldering, and testing motor control schemes.

· Mechanical

The Mechanical Subsystem creates a robust drive train to travel over the rough terrain of the competition while providing stable mounting points for the arm and science station. The group creates a digital rendering of the rover and get it manufactured into reality. The team works to fully design the base of the rover as well as the wheels. This subsystem is also responsible for the design, and construction of the rover’s robotic arm. The arm must safely lift up to 5 kg and needs to be dexterous enough to pick up tools and perform complicated actions on a control panel. Members of this subsystem learn to design to manufacture parts and perform maintenance and repairs should the need arise.

· Management

The Management team oversees fundraising, managing funds, seeking sponsorships, ordering parts, and making travel arrangements for the team to get to competition. The team also takes pictures, creates content for the website, and presents Team Antriksh to businesses, donors, and outside organizations. The Management team emphasizes management of people, finances, and public profile, and works to provide opportunities to club members to develop valuable skills.

· Science Cache

The Science Cache Subsystem is responsible for designing and building the Science Station, a module on the rover that collects and analyses soil samples, providing information such as soil temperature and water content. The subsystem also chooses and develops a set of off-rover soil tests, such as X-ray spectrometry, and provides background information to contextualize any findings during the competition.

Sponsors

We seek contributions from sponsors to help finance the purchase of electronics, materials, as well as help us cover a partial cost of travelling to Utah. In addition to the helping promote the professional and educational development of our team members, we intend to promote our sponsors on our official website, as well as, on social media and on the GitHub community. We also plan on coming up with our very own Team Antriksh merchandise and would advertise the sponsors’ logos.

If you would like to contribute to our project, kindly contact us on the below mentioned contact details.

Contact Us

Team Antriksh,

Manipal University Jaipur,

Dehmi Kalan,

Near GVK Toll Plaza,

Jaipur-Ajmer Express Highway,

Jaipur, Rajasthan 303 – 007

+91 95 380 90 504

rover.antrikshlabs.space

You could also e-mail us at: teamantriksh@antrikshlabs.space