Thanks to Jonathan for writing in about this awesome Robotic arm project! Check out more info here.
What do we do?
We design and build the next generation of Mars rovers that will one day work alongside human explorers in the field.
The Missouri S&T Mars Rover Design Team (MRDT) was established in 2012 to compete in the University Rover Challenge (URC) hosted by The Mars Society. URC expects rovers to perform a number of tasks in the southern Utah desert in conditions analogous to those that would be expected in and around colonies on Mars. In two short years we have become the leading Mars rover design team in the U.S., and second in the world. This feat would not be possible without Missouri S&T, the generosity of our sponsors, and the dedication of our members.
In the time between competitions, MRDT commits to a year-long design, fabrication, and integration process. MRDT operates completely on donations from sponsors and our university in order to see our rovers realized. Our current rover, Horizon (shown below), competed in URC 2015. It features components designed entirely by members of our team, such as:
A water-jetted aluminum chassis
3D-printed differential gears for the robotic arm
80 lithium-polymer battery cells
Custom Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) for communication, battery management, and power distribution
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
