UW Robotics URC 2025 Technical report

Disclaimer:

Since URC2025's complete competition requirements have not yet been released, All the technical details described in this document are based on URC 2024. Based on past experience, the overall architecture will not differ hugely yearly, and the foundation of the rover will always remain consistent(Drivetrain, Arm, Autonomy). When URC2025 come out, our team can easily accommodate the new requirement and continue the design cycle.

Summary:

This report served as a technical review of the team vehicle design. The following highlights the three key objectives our team is going to accomplish in the URC 2024-2025 competition cycle:

• Complete the full rover system, qualify and compete in the URC 2025 competition

• Reformulate a proper team structure and ensure the team's sustainability

• Reconnect with past or future potential sponsorship companies and maintain positive relationships with the UW engineering department, the Waterloo community, and the outside world.

Executive summary:

Our team has flattened our team structure right now as we believe this will relieve the communication barrier and prioritize the rover development with the amount of resources our team currently has. However, project managers/ Leads are still in place to deal with conflict, better onboard new team members, and ensure the rover design aligns with our main objective. Here is a list of project managers/ leads and their roles in the team:

@Yuchen Lin - Technical Lead (Propose and maintain the rover architecture; Maintain a positive relationship within UWRT and with the outside)

@Saheed Quadri - Mechanical Lead (Mechanical team supervising; Rover Mechanical design)

@Yu-Ming He - Mechanical Lead(Main rover mechanical design)

@Melissa Jacob - Electrical Leads(Rover electrical design)

@Rayyan Mahmood - Electrical Advisor (Electrical team supervising & support)

@Alex Szabo - Software Lead (Software team supervising; Rover software design)

@Josh Magder - Firmware Advisor (Firmware team supervising; Rover firmware design)

@Maya Wei - Business Lead (Team advertising, sponsorship and team social)

We have optimized our team structure over time; this is our understanding of a better team structure. All the leads have worked closely and can support the team in meeting the URC 2025 deadline.

Competition Summary:

University Rover Challenge is a difficult competition due to its competitive nature. Our team experienced much disappointment when applying to the competition and trying to pass the System Acceptance Review(SAR). However, after carefully reading the competition guidelines and reviewing some other teams' qualifications, the UWRT executive team has made the following changes to secure our invitation for SAR 2025.

• Define key selling points the competition requires

  • Ensure the selling point covers all the main systems required by the competition guidelines

  • Setup Milestones to finish the selling point step by step

  • Not trying to accomplish all the missions, focus on the high-priority ones.

• Not to delay the SAR review video until the last minute

  • Record the section of the SAR video after each milestone is completed

• Develop an integration knowledge base

  • Ensure the team’s ability to prototype things and iterate to meet the competition requirement.

• Constantly testing to ensure all system functionality.

Competition requirement:

The competition consists of four discrete missions.

Open

Delivery Mission:

Environment: soft sandy areas, gravel, rough stony areas, rock and boulder fields, vertical drops, and steep, loosely consolidated slopes

Operating distance: 1 km (beyond visual Line of Sight)

• Follow Marked Path

• Open Toolbox (using hinged Lids)

• Pick up, carry, and deliver objects

  • weight: less than 5kg

  • grasp feature no greater than 7.5cm

  • max dimension: 40cm x 40cm x 40 cm

• Visual object search

• Read Signs

• Visually identify Rock

• Optional: Carry multiple items with provided cars

Equipment Service Mission:

Operating distance: 250 meters

Environment: Flat terrain

Equipment max height: 1.5 meter

• Deliver a max 5kg Cache container and insert it into a drawer

• Tighten 5/16” Allen(hex) head

• undo the latch and open a panel

  • Type the keyboard and follow the directions on a computer display

• Observe a Gauge and operate a Joystick

• Insert USB A stick

• Push buttons, flip the switch, and turn the knob

Autonomy Mission:

• Fully autonomous operation

• Travel to two GNSS-only locations stopped within 3 meter

• Recognize 3 AR-tag posts. Detect and stop within 2 meter

• Recognize 2 objects on the ground. Detect and stop within 2 meter

• LED Indicator for 3 operational status and display message to judge

• abort the operation if needed

Science Mission:

Distance: 500 meters

• Take three photo

  • Wide angle panorama with scale

  • high-resolution picture with scale

  • Stratigraphic profile for depositional environment and analysis for history of water

• Record GPS Coordinate of each site

• Camera or other life-detection mechanism

• Collect sub-surface samples (at least 10cm deep) from 2 sites at least 5g

• Seal sample and return cache to command station

• Require a science plan

Mission optimization:

Based on the previous mission requirement section, this section describes the features UWRT will prioritize to finish and some nice-to-have features that we will try to accomplish if there is plenty of time remaining.

Delivery mission:

Prioritizing:

• Working Drivetrain able to navigate through different environments

• 1km beyond the line of sight radio link

• High-Quality Camera feed to support all visual search

• End effector and arm to grab any object

Nice to Have:

• End effector capable of opening the hinge

• Gimbal for easier object search

• Video zoom into and out of feature

• Close-to-ground video feed for trace following

Equipment Service Mission:

Prioritizing:

• Working drivetrain to deliver the product

• Pick up a max 5kg container and insert the container into a drawer

• use a normal end effector to push the button

• use a normal end effector to flip the switch

• Use a normal end effector to undo the latch and open a panel

• end effector camera for situational awareness

Nice to have:

• 5/16” Allen(hex) head end effector module

• Small end effector module that can type keyboard

• End effector module to operate the joystick

• Special motion for turning the knob

• Special motion to insert USB and reverse the polarity retry if needed

Autonomy Mission:

Prioritize:

• Working drivetrain can follow the GPS path

• Tested GPS Accuracy(VN-300 should provide enough accuracy)

• Tag Detection

• Status information display

• Abort ability

Nice to Have:

• Object detection

• Obstacles avoidance

• Distance sensing

Science Mission:

Prioritize:

• Working drivetrain

• photo taking capability

• GPS Coordinate measuring capability

Nice to have:

• Collect sub-surface soil sample module

• Seal cache and deliver back to ground station

Rover Capability:

Our team has divided the Rover into six main systems. Each system focuses on accomplishing one aspect of the mission. This section illustrates the functionality of each subsystem; during the actual mission, the multiple systems need to interact to complete the mission objective.

Drivetrain

The current drivetrain system has almost reached the end of its design cycle. The only thing left is to clean up the current system to create a better foundation interfacing with the rest of the system since the drivetrain is considerably the most critical system in the whole rover. The figure illustrates a rendering of the current drivetrain system.

Open

The Drivetrain system is designed with the following requirements:

• Rocker Bogie system to traverse through rough terrain

• Minimum drivetrain ground clearance 1 meter

• Max drivetrain system weight less than 20kg (ebox included)

• Custom airless tire with enough grip on dirt and sand

• Ability to climb a curve within a 15-degree elevation

• Able to overcome obstacles with height within 20 cm

• Independent control on each wheel

• Arcade controller for easier operator control

• Input interface to interact with command-based operation

Arm

The mechanical design of the arms project is completed. However, this project is undergoing validation and testing to study the system's capability before entering the full manufacturing stage.

The arm system is designed with the following requirements:

• At a minimum, the arm has 4 degrees of freedom

• Max weight: 15kg.

• The arm can pick up a 5kg object and hold the object

• Able to adjust rover center of mass after picking up heavy object

• Able to reach at least a workspace and pick up the end effect module

• Able to grab a handle, flip a switch, and push a button

Science

The full design of the science module will wait until F24, when the competition guideline is released, since science missions change the most every year. However, a lesson learned from the past is that rapid prototyping and iterating are the best ways to develop the science module, and they usually help the team accomplish the most objectives and score the highest. The team also has the past design and prototype of the science module.

The science system is designed with the following requirements:

• Max weight 15kg

• Able to dig the hole and extract soil

• Able to perform onboard analysis (software analysis or chemical analysis)

• Able to seal the sample and transport the sample back

Autonomy

Autonomy is a complete system itself but requires communication with the drivetrain system to control the rover. Note: The drivetrain control is abstracted away from the autonomy system and only exposes certain APIs for motion control.

The autonomy system is designed with the following requirements:

• Able to navigate through the area based on the given GPS coordinate

• Accurate GPS Coordinate information(VN300 is capable of providing the accuracy)

• Camera ability to detect AR tags and objects

• Camera ability to avoid large obstacles.

Power

The power system is available to protect the other electrical components onboard when one fails and still deliver the required power to all the components. The system will expands as the rover develops.

The power system is designed with the following requirements:

• The power system takes 48v from the battery

• The power system monitors all the rails before delivering the power to the rest of the system

• The power system is able to detect faulty rails and disable them to ensure the safety of other components

• Safety switch to kill the rover under emergency

Communication

The current rover communication system is equipped with a 27dbm telemetry radio operating at 900 MHz.

The communication system is designed with the following requirements:

• Able to reach beyond the line of sight for a 1 km

• Support enough bandwidth for live video feed

• Switch over to a backup link in cases of main link failure

• Reliable gimbal system and relay the video feed directly back to the ground station

• Radio links need to be available for at least rover three orientations:

  • Two sides facing the ground station

  • the back side facing the ground station

Rover Vehicle Design:

When our team tried to attend URC for the last two seasons, most parts of the rover, especially mechanical, had already been designed. Therefore, this year's Rover Vehicle Design focuses not on recreating the whole rover but on validating the current design, making necessary improvements, and integrating the system to make it work. Our team will continue discussing to ensure the vehicle design matches the competition's requirements.

Team Management:

Risk analysis:

Project Timeline:

Note: the timeline is subject to change. As highlighted in the diagram, the team's goal is to complete the whole rover system as soon as possible, test it, and optimize it for the competition, which aligns with the iterative design process.