In May 2011, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will be hosting its second annual Lunabotics Mining Competition. The goal of an entry into the competition is to design a robot that will result in innovative ideas and solutions that could shape the future of lunar and extra-planetary missions performed by NASA. The project team consists of undergraduate and graduate students from Florida A & M University and Florida State University majoring in Electrical, Computer and Mechanical Engineering.
The team’s mission is to design and build a robot that can excavate 10 kilograms (kg) of regolith (lunar soil) and transfer it to a container within 15 minutes. The robot will be competing in a box containing eight tons of simulated regolith. The innovative design of our lunar excavator will be based on a hexapedal walking platform. Along with the fabrication of a lunar mining robot, the team will perform community outreach for K-12 grade students in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) at both schools and community events.