Ivan Davydychev

EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley

Technical Report No. UCB/EECS-2019-145

December 1, 2019

This paper describes the design of a prototype of an expendable two-wheeled rover called PUFFER that is meant to explore the difficult-to-reach regions of Mars. The mission plan is to stack multiple PUFFERs in a cavity inside a parent rover like Curiosity. When this parent rover encounters a natural feature of interest that is inaccessible to large rovers, it can eject a PUFFER to explore further. PUFFER stands for "pop-up flat-folding explorer robot," so named because it can fold itself to fit into tight spaces. PUFFER's chassis consists of a 3-D linkage that can vary the sprawl angle of PUFFER's wheels. This ability to sprawl, besides letting multiple PUFFERs fit into a parent rover, improves PUFFER's ability to climb steep slopes. Each wheel, furthermore, is outfitted with nitinol brushes that are optimized to maximize ground traction. As a result, PUFFER is able to climb 45 degree rock inclines that have surface roughness on the order of 1cm (which is almost half of PUFFER's folded height). PUFFER also has a collapsible tail, is able to flip itself over, and is designed to survive large drop heights.

Advisors: Ronald S. Fearing

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BibTeX citation:

@mastersthesis{Davydychev:EECS-2019-145,
    Author= {Davydychev, Ivan},
    Editor= {Fearing, Ronald S.},
    Title= {Design of a Two-Wheeled Mars Rover with Sprawl Ability and Metal Brush Traction},
    School= {EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley},
    Year= {2019},
    Month= {Dec},
    Url= {http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2019/EECS-2019-145.html},
    Number= {UCB/EECS-2019-145},
    Abstract= {This paper describes the design of a prototype of an expendable two-wheeled rover called PUFFER that is meant to explore the difficult-to-reach regions of Mars. The mission plan is to stack multiple PUFFERs in a cavity inside a parent rover like Curiosity. When this parent rover encounters a natural feature of interest that is inaccessible to large rovers, it can eject a PUFFER to explore further. PUFFER stands for "pop-up flat-folding explorer robot," so named because it can fold itself to fit into tight spaces. PUFFER's chassis consists of a 3-D linkage that can vary the sprawl angle of PUFFER's wheels. This ability to sprawl, besides letting multiple PUFFERs fit into a parent rover, improves PUFFER's ability to climb steep slopes. Each wheel, furthermore, is outfitted with nitinol brushes that are optimized to maximize ground traction. As a result, PUFFER is able to climb 45 degree rock inclines that have surface roughness on the order of 1cm (which is almost half of PUFFER's folded height). PUFFER also has a collapsible tail, is able to flip itself over, and is designed to survive large drop heights.},
}

EndNote citation:

%0 Thesis
%A Davydychev, Ivan 
%E Fearing, Ronald S. 
%T Design of a Two-Wheeled Mars Rover with Sprawl Ability and Metal Brush Traction
%I EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley
%D 2019
%8 December 1
%@ UCB/EECS-2019-145
%U http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2019/EECS-2019-145.html
%F Davydychev:EECS-2019-145