Mars Rover
Fourier
Meet Fourier: Transforming Martian Mysteries Into Discoveries
The rover must be able to withstand harsh environments such as dust, rain, rough terrain, and wind while still being capable of accomplishing a variety of tasks like getting from point A to point B with accuracy, collecting soil, and analyzing its chemical structure, rescue a stranded astronaut, etc.
Fourier at the Canadian International Rover Challenge
There are a lot of Rover competition worldwide, for the moment we are attending CIRC (Canadian International Rover Challenge), but we are planning on taking part in other competitions such as WINTER CIRC, ERC (European Rover Challenge), and URC (University Rover Challenge)
MARS Rover Divisions
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Electrical
The Electrical Division focuses on wiring, controlling and powering the various subsystems on the rover, including Drive, Arm and Science. The Rover electrical box includes student designed PCBs and firmware to allow the different subsystems to function together seamlessly by communicating with the ROS Master (Jetson or RaspberryPi). Members on the electrical division develop their circuit design skills using Altium, through hole and SMT soldering skills and embedded software development skills under the supervision of the Project Manager, Technical Advisors and Electrical Leads, and work closely with the other divisions.
Fourier
Science
The next step in scientific development is here. Using our modular on board soil collection system, the Mars Rover can collect soil samples from areas of interest and conserve them for scientific analysis. Once the soil samples are retrieved, they are put through a series of tests to determine their composition. These results are instrumental in identifying the ideal location for a colony on Mars.
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Software
The software division is responsible for designing the human interface with the rover, enabling precise control over the rover and its arm through an intuitive interface. Next, they develop comprehensive simulations that test various systems such as drive, arm, cameras, etc. ensuring their reliability. Lastly, the team has recently begun developing a drive autonomy package, a sophisticated software solution that allows the rover to autonomously navigate obstacles and traverse terrains.
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Mechanical
In the mechanical division, we strive for continuous improvement of the structure of our rover. The designs undergo multiple iterations of CADing, prototyping, and testing before being implemented into the final product. Simulations also constitute an integral part of our design process to verify that the parts meet our requirements and ensure good integration with the work of other divisions. We use a variety of technologies, such as plastic and metal 3D printing, to optimize the functionality of our rover. Through the collective efforts of the whole division, we aim for maximum mobility, durability, and stability of our rover throughout the competition.
Team Behind The Machine
On the team we have this slogan “Team Before Machine” or TBM for short. This short sentence reminds us of the purpose of this team which isn’t only to design cool robots, we want to design cool robots while having fun and creating long lasting bonds between our members and ensure that we all feel like part of the same big family.
Fourier At A Glance
Here are some more specific details on the Mars Rover and many of the skills our members learn.
Degrees of Freedom
6 (Surge, Sway, Heave, Roll, Pitch, Yaw)
Embedded Systems
Arduino Uno Rev3 (Propulsion). Arduino Micro (Pressure Sensor)
Power System
Custom Power Governance PCB.
14.8V 20000mAH BlueRobotics LiPo Battery
Compute Module
NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin
Navigation Stack
SBG Elipse-N IMU
Water Linked A50 DVL
Custom Pressure Sensor
Propulsion
BlueRobotics T200 Thrusters and Electronic Speed Controllers (x8)
Software Stack
Robotics Operating System (ROS) Noetic
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Python3, C++, C
Computer Vision
Intel RealSense d455 (Forward Facing) Arducam IMX219 Camera Module
Machine Learning
PyTorchYOLO v8