Development of downsized bolter robot for lunar structures
Publicerad
Författare
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Master's Thesis
Master's Thesis
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
This master’s thesis project in Product Development at Chalmers University of
Technology presents the development of a downsized version of the MMIC-I robot,
called mini MMIC-I (mMMIC-I), within NASA’s ARMADAS project. The project
was conducted during the spring of 2025 at NASA Ames Research Center in San
Francisco, California. ARMADAS focuses on autonomous assembly of large structures
in space using modular building blocks (voxels). With the goal of raising
the technology readiness level (TRL) of the ARMADAS system and preparing for
a potential CubeSat mission, this work investigates the feasibility of scaling down
the MMIC-I robot to operate within a 1.5 U voxel size (150 mm x 150 mm x 150 mm).
The project followed an agile-inspired product development methodology, combining
iterative prototyping, structured evaluation, and reflective learning processes. A
two-week sprint structure guided the development timeline, enabling continual feedback
and design refinement. The methodology included prototyping with increasing
fidelity. Emphasis was placed on balancing fast prototyping cycles with sufficient
analytical groundwork to avoid over-engineering within the project’s limited fourmonth
duration.
During the project, two iterations of mMMIC-I were prototyped and evaluated.
While the latest prototype does not perform with the same reliability as MMIC-I,
it can be concluded that through further iterations, a version that can perform
reliably in 1.5 U voxels is possible. The project also discusses how different aspects of
robotic simplification can be applied to the mMMIC-I design and what the required
upcoming development steps before flight are.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
MMIC-I, ARMADAS, Robotics, Lunar, Down-Scaling, Redesign, Voxels, mMMIC-I, NASA, Design-simplification