It has been a very busy 30 days, but well worth the effort...
There were 4 teams at the competition on May 12th, and my machine was the only one to run the entire 30 minutes. It also moved about 75 kg of JSC-1A, 65 of it going into the collector, 10 on the ground. It also ran exactly at the specified limit of 30 watts average. Rob Mueller of NASA made the point that is the power used by a refrigerator light bulb, and it is amazing that any real work can be done with it. Even though it didn't move the minimum 150 kg to win a cash award this time, I think that it can be done.
This is one of the cases where simple was better. The machine can be described as an inverted bucket, continuous chain driven drag. The buckets are moved to the end of a 4 foot horizontal boom where they flip over and contact the soil, and drag it back towards the delivery ramp at the root of the pivot. The machine uses 3 motors driving the bucket chain mechanism, and one to pan the boom from side to side. The boom pivots vertically as the hole it digs becomes deeper. I'll have some pictures posted on a web site soon, but I'm still recovering from the last couple of weeks...
In the meantime, here are links to a couple of small avi files that show an earlier version in action during a test on some clay soil:
Front View
Back View
All of the machines relied on a stationary base that secured a mechanism that moved across the simulated regolith and moved material to the collector. I think this was a surprise to the contest hosts, and they expected more autonomous vehicles driving around the sand box gathering up the JSC-1A and dumping it into the collector. I suspect that rules for the 2008 contest will try to include an element of transportation in addition to excavation, we'll see.
I don't want to give away too many secrets about the JSC-1A yet, since I will be competing again, but I will say that testing an excavator in hard clay soils won't work; it's too hard. The simulant behaves more like fine sand, but it has some properties that make it different from sand; it is some strange stuff.
The stated goal of the Centenial Challenge program is to get inventors involved that might not have the resources to deal with NASA and the grant process. The entry fees are very resonable, and the excavation challenge in particular is accessable to a wide audience, unlike some of the other challenges, so I encourage everyone to give it a shot.
I will post some more info as soon as I can...
Jim
There were 4 teams at the competition on May 12th, and my machine was the only one to run the entire 30 minutes. It also moved about 75 kg of JSC-1A, 65 of it going into the collector, 10 on the ground. It also ran exactly at the specified limit of 30 watts average. Rob Mueller of NASA made the point that is the power used by a refrigerator light bulb, and it is amazing that any real work can be done with it. Even though it didn't move the minimum 150 kg to win a cash award this time, I think that it can be done.
This is one of the cases where simple was better. The machine can be described as an inverted bucket, continuous chain driven drag. The buckets are moved to the end of a 4 foot horizontal boom where they flip over and contact the soil, and drag it back towards the delivery ramp at the root of the pivot. The machine uses 3 motors driving the bucket chain mechanism, and one to pan the boom from side to side. The boom pivots vertically as the hole it digs becomes deeper. I'll have some pictures posted on a web site soon, but I'm still recovering from the last couple of weeks...
In the meantime, here are links to a couple of small avi files that show an earlier version in action during a test on some clay soil:
Front View
Back View
All of the machines relied on a stationary base that secured a mechanism that moved across the simulated regolith and moved material to the collector. I think this was a surprise to the contest hosts, and they expected more autonomous vehicles driving around the sand box gathering up the JSC-1A and dumping it into the collector. I suspect that rules for the 2008 contest will try to include an element of transportation in addition to excavation, we'll see.
I don't want to give away too many secrets about the JSC-1A yet, since I will be competing again, but I will say that testing an excavator in hard clay soils won't work; it's too hard. The simulant behaves more like fine sand, but it has some properties that make it different from sand; it is some strange stuff.
The stated goal of the Centenial Challenge program is to get inventors involved that might not have the resources to deal with NASA and the grant process. The entry fees are very resonable, and the excavation challenge in particular is accessable to a wide audience, unlike some of the other challenges, so I encourage everyone to give it a shot.
I will post some more info as soon as I can...
Jim
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