NASA Jet Propulsion Lab

Mars Perseverance Rover mobility and mechanical design for Robosimian.

** Note: Due to the confidential nature of this work, I am unable to share all photos and details of my work. **

Mars Perseverance Rover

At the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), I worked with a team of mobility engineers and flight technicians to build the rover mobility system, stress test its sub-assemblies, and integrate it onto the rover’s chassis in a cleanroom in preparation for flight.

The team and I in the cleanroom working on mobility integration.

A mobility engineer and I led a group of flight technicians and built a variable center of gravity fixture. The variable center of gravity fixture (pink) was used to facilitate handling of the Mars Perseverance Rover mobility subsystem. A photo was taken from the Spacecraft Assembly Facility (SAF) viewing window during an application of the fixture.

The fixture in action, carrying the rocker-bogie subassembly.

I led the stress testing effort on a part of the mobility subassembly along with some testing of mobility capabilities via the Scarecrow Rover.

Testing a mobility subassembly and checking mobility capabilities on Scarecrow (I'm on the right piloting the rover).
A picture with the Mars Perseverance Rover twin in the Mars Yard!

Robosimian Robot

The RoboSimian robot has different modes of locomotion. The robot’s mobility was hindered by it’s old cantilevered wheel design. Components of the old wheel assembly design repeatedly snagged on jagged terrain. I designed a new ”fork” style wheel assembly to avoid the snagging that impedes the robot’s mobility.

Mechanical design change.