Hi, I'm the Odyssey Rover!
Project by: Aviana J., Joel F., Sarah E., and JC T.
What is the Odyssey Rover?
Our rover was created by our group, Odyssey, during Berry College's TerraMars program. We were tasked with a mission to build a rover that could place seeds across Mars in an orderly manner.
To do this, we needed to figure out two things:
1. How to make the rover move along a track
2. How to dispense our "seeds"
We explored innovative inventions already used in agriculture and Mars space missions and recreated them using technologies like 3-D printing and laser cutting.
Our Process
1st Prototype
First, we came up with the idea to use a motorized wheel that spins and drops seeds every time it rotates over a hole, and to make the rover mobile, we used another motor to power the front wheels with 2 more sets of wheels to support the rover. Due to limited time, we had to make rapid prototypes out of foam core.
2nd Prototype
After being able visualize the different components we'll use to transport the rover and dispense the seeds, we made more refined prototypes out of foam core, 3D printing filament, and Legos. However, both components failed in functioning the way we wanted them to. The rover kept running into the walls and stopping, and the seeds kept getting stuck inside the spinner.
3rd and Final Prototype
After many failed attempts at revising the 2nd prototype, we finally got a functioning rover. We had to add roller ball bearing to the sides to keep the rover from getting stuck on the walls of the track, and we had to add a tube that feeds into the spinner so that extra seeds won't be able to go into the wheel before it can drop the ones it already contains.
Competition Time!
During out last session for TerraMars, we competed with other groups' rovers to see who could get the most points on a track with targets. Here are some clips and pics from our runs.
Overall, we tied for third place with a total score of 204 points and an average of 34 points/run, so we'd say it was a pretty successful day! Great work team!
