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Lab CalendarThe Hexcavator Lunabot
Videos |
Presentations |
 Figure 1. Hexcavator during a competition attempt at NASA Kennedy Space Center in May of 2012. |
The 2011 and 2012 FAMU-FSU College of Engineering competition team for the 2nd and 3rd Annual NASA Lunabotics Mining Competition focused their work on the development of a hexapedal walking robot capable of traversing the obstacles of an alien world. The purpose of the competition was to develop novel systems for the excavation of Lunar regolith for future manned missions to the Moon. Recently, NASA discovered that lunar regolith, or top soil, has solid water, or ice, in it. This discovery has shown that it would be feasible to build a lunar base in the near future. Other than water, lunar regolith can be used for construction material, shielding from radiation and micro-meteorites, blast burms for landing craft, and possibly even raw materials such as rocket fuel constituents. In the future of lunar exploration and colonization, regolith has an important role to play as well as the excavation of regolith. |
The platform is based on the RHex family of robots which weigh approximately 2kg. The Hexcavator Platform dynamically scaled RHex to a platform mass of 60kg and increased its size substantially for the competition. The platform uses carbon fiber 'C-legs' that are 22" in diameter and 1/4" thick. The excavation system utilized during the 2012 Lunabotics Competition was a barrel design with two flukes. The barrel rotated in that regolith scooping up in one direction and when rotated the other, could dump into the lunapit receptacle.
The Hexcavator Senior Design Project was sponsored by the National Space Grant Foundation, the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Northrop Grumman, the STRIDe Lab, and NASA.
The Hexcavator platform is the largest to-date hexapedal walking robot developed. Future work will focus on applying sensors and novel actuators to expand the capabilities of the platform and utilize it for future scientific endeavors.
2010-2011 NASA Lunabotics Senior Design Team |
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| Aleks Fedoriw Mechanical Engineering |
Michael Pearse Electrical Engineering |
| Duncan Haldane Mechanical Engineering |
Carlos Ruiz Electrical Engineering |
| Arthur Pack Mechanical Engineering |
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| James Dickson, Masters
'12 Graduate Advisor Mechanical Engineering |
Bruce Miller, Ph.D. '14 Graduate Advisor Mechanical Engineering |
2011-2012 NASA Lunabotics Senior Design Team |
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| Shannon Berger Mechanical Engineering |
McKenzie Reed Mechanical Engineering |
| James Fadool Mechanical Engineering |
Rob Sistare Electrical Engineering |
| Seth Murphy Computer Engineering |
Devin Walden Electrical Engineering |
| James Dickson, Masters
'12 Graduate Advisor Mechanical Engineering |
Bruce Miller, Ph.D. '14 Graduate Advisor Mechanical Engineering |
Videos
 Hexcavator during a competition attempt at the 3rd Annual Lunabotics Mining Competition |
