The Rover is a prototype mars rover designed to aid human settlement on Mars. It was remotely controlled using only cameras for visual feedback and needed to be capable of traversing rough terrain and interacting with it's environment. The rover also needed to be capable of collecting samples for scientific analysis. The rover was designed from scratch over the first semester of the school year, entirely in 3D CAD.

As the Systems Engineering Lead I was responsible for:

• Determining overall architecture of the rover and support systems based on competition requirements.
• Managing subsystem teams to ensure a smooth integration.
• Managing top-level CAD integration of the rover.
• Design of mechanical components in the arm and communication equipment.
• Assisting in electrical schematic capture and layout for various subsystems.

We began to fabricate components in December, with a full integration deadline of February. The rover was quickly built so that we could begin testing subsystems with enough time to make changes. We were able to have a driving rover in February and continued to add subsystems through March. We planned on performing a full competition run-through before going to Utah in May.

Rover Tests:

• Antenna range testing for signal strength and latency.
• Terrain traversal over various surfaces around campus.
• Arm control, grasping, and lifting capacity tests.
• Operator training with only camera based visual feedback.

After testing as much as we could, it was time to ship the rover to Utah for competition. The finals were held at the Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station, where they simulate manned Mars missions. We were the only team there who had never competed before. We were also one of the few teams in competition history to qualify for finals in their first year.

The four competition tasks were Extreme Retrieval, Equipment Servicing, Science, and Autonomous Navigation. Each task involved multiple subsystems and pushed the rover to its limits. We had failures of the arm and a tough time with autonomous. However we did very well driving across rough terrain and picking up objects with the arm in Extreme Retrieval.

The competition required quick thinking and in field fixes. Not to mention the desert sun and heat that made the tasks even more challenging for the team. We worked very hard throughout the whole competition, but had a great time.

In our first ever year of competition, we were able to compete with some of the top engineering schools around the world. We built a capable and tough rover that is still being iterated and used by the team to this day. The rover also continued to be used in outreach events like the Boston Science Museum's celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Moon Landing and Robot Block Party.

I am extremely proud of having been part of this team and being able to work on a project of this magnitude. I was able to use the systems engineering skills that I had learned on co op to track requirements, risks, and ensure that every detail was accounted for. The practices put in place here guide the team to this day.

This project also taught me a lot about complex robotic and autonomous systems. While this robot was designed to drive on rough terrain, the principles that I learned are not too different from the design of aerial or underwater robotic systems. I will carry this experience with me throughout my engineering career.