Student Projects
NASA Lunabotics Mining Competition, 2013
The challenge:
The May of 2013 is a special moment as Manipal University, one of the five Indian participating teams at NASA LMC 2013 will be heading to Kennedy Space Center, Florida for the 4th session of Lunabotics, participating against 50 teams from all over the world. This competition requires the conceptualization, design and construction of a telerobotic lunar excavator to be controlled over a WiFi network.
The solution:
Choosing between control products was a difficult situation as every other system was better than the previous. Once the team members read up about LabVIEW in the August of 2011, the usage of LabVIEW and National Instruments' products have been a consistent tradition in RoboManipal Lunabotics. A semi-open-source solution involving LabVIEW and National Instruments was concluded upon.
Products:
NI 9024 cRIO w/ NI 9133 four-slot chassis
NI 9401 High-Speed Digital I/O (x4)
NI 9263 4-channel Analog Output Module
Arduino Uno
Arduino Mega
Joystick Shield (Itead Studios)
NI Smart Cam
Software:
NI LabVIEW 2011
NI LabVIEW Robotics Module
NI LVIFA (LabVIEW Interface for Arduino)
System description
Control panel and back-end code view:
Conclusion:
RoboManipal Lunabotics have worked to create a robust electronic system based on National Instruments' LabVIEW. The team has been successful in preparing a design that adheres to all constraints set up by NASA. RoboManipal Lunabotics will continue with this project, putting forth their complete effort to develop a high-quality robot for successful participation in NASA LMC 2013.
Contact Details:
Aditya Kamath
Project Head and Systems Engineer
adi.k2405@gmail.com
+91 7829530845
Apoorve Rastogi
Project Manager and Electronics Team Member
apoorvethechamp@gmail.com
+91 7795021139
Kalpit Mehta
Management Head
+91 9035098980
Team RoboManipal
www.robomanipal.wordpress.com
www.facebook.com/robomanipallunabotics
www.twitter.com/teamrobomanipal
