Inspiration
The inspiration for this rover was Travis Bot, a nostalgic toy car our team member Sachin once made.
What it does
Lightning MoonQueen is designed to traverse the harsh landscape of the moon. It has the agility to avoid obstacles in tight spaces with the range needed for extended exploration.
How we built it
Our team was quite diverse consisting of two electrical engineers, one computer engineer, and one mechanical engineer. We all learned a lot from each other while still taking advantage of our strengths. We divided responsibilities across wiring, software development, and CAD design, allowing each team member to focus on their area of expertise while still contributing to the overall system.
Challenges we ran into
Due to limitations in materials and 3D printing, we were forced to abandon our idea for a robotic arm which would've been able to pick up smaller objects. This was because we ran into issues with not having enough servo motors or enough time to CAD and test our designs.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Although we didn’t accomplish every goal we set out to (such as building the robotic arm), we were still able to design a fully functioning rover capable of exploring the moon. This was the first hackathon for every member of our team, and even though we didn’t all know each other at the start, we quickly learned how to work together and combine our skills to bring the project to life.
What we learned
We learned that planning is a very important part of any project. In hindsight, we should have spent more time planning before the hackathon and created a more detailed plan once we saw what parts we had access to. Instead, we made the mistake of being overly ambitious, which led to us spreading ourselves too thin rather than focusing on a smaller set of achievable goals.
What's next for Lightning MoonQueen
Next, lightning MoonQueen is ready to have its own arm!
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