Apprenticeship 2017-2018: Elija Simmons

The NASA Robotic Mining Competition (RMC) seeks to simulate the challenges of designing a robot that can autonomously mine regolith on the Moon or Mars in order to practice in situ resource utilization. The competition is to design and build a 1.5 meter by 0.75 meter by 0.75 meter robot to mine as much simulated regolith as possible in a 10 minute period. In an exploration mission, a lighter robot means more room for other robots, other mission components, scientific payloads, and margin for error. Accordingly in the scoring system of the competition, there is a significant point advantage in having a low mass robot.

This is a proposal to research, develop, and implement fiber-epoxy construction methods in order to design and construct a drivetrain frame for Aurora Robotics’ 2018 NASA Robotic Mining Competition robot. Composite construction methods would be developed using carbon fiber, fiberglass, and basalt fiber composites. Then those construction methods would be mechanically tested to determine the material properties of the composites structures. Finally, a minimalistic drivetrain frame would be developed and constructed primarily using one or more of the composite materials tested.

I will be working on this proposal as a member of the Aurora Robotics team. Aurora Robotics is a partially CEM funded team that competes in the NASA Robotic Mining Competition. The mechanical parts of the drivetrain will be developed independently from this proposal.

This proposal would also further the the 2015 NASA Tech Roadmap. For example, the TA 12: Materials, Structures, Mechanical Systems, and Manufacturing calls for “Materials that can reduce the mass of structures include composites, especially polymer matrix composites (PMCs)” (NASA, 2015). Since proposal would investigate the application of carbon fiber, fiberglass, and basalt fiber composites in robotic structures, this aligns with NASA’s goal of further developing composite technology.
Developing fiber-epoxy construction methods would be a very useful expansion to Aurora Robotics’ repertoire of construction methods. Further, developing such techniques in a systematic and empirical way would be of use to NASA’s mission of pioneering the future in space exploration, as versatile, low cost, and mass efficient materials are highly relevant to any aerospace endeavor.