GITAM UNIVERSITY, INDIA

Team ILLUMINATI Systems Engineering Paper

GITAM UNIVERISTY
Faculty Advisor

Dr. S. NARAYANA RAO

Team Members
Rudra pratap Janki Bhimani
Siddharth p.v.s.s P. Srichandan Reddy
Giridhar Tirupati Nishant. K
Abdul Shariq Shaiq T.S.K Naidu
Saifuddin Malik A.V.Aditya Saastry

Team Illuminati Copyright 2012 Page 1

Executive summary

The integration of brains of various engineering disciplines has led to the formation of the Team
Illuminate's Lunabot. The primary purpose of designing a Lunabot is to excavate the Regolith (black point -1
simulant) present on the Moons surface which is very high in uranium content. The Lunabot made by us is
an innovative design with three subsystems of Dig, Drive, and Deposit with a concept of LAMTS(Learn-
Analyse-Make-Test-Share). The educational objective behind this project was to learn more about lunar
activities and get familiar with other branches of engineering. The team had performed its Lunabot with
the simulation of STEM (science Technology engineering mathematics) which made the work easy. The
Lunabot is being designed for the NASA third annual Lunabotics mining competition representing GITAM
University which has given us a platform to perform the project and funding for the same. The complexity
of the project requires implementation of many systems engineering techniques which allow for
development of Team Illuminati from conception through reviews and encompass the full design,
fabrication, and testing process.

Abstract
To get prolific solutions to a problem the best way is to compete on the same problem. The need of the
hour is solutions to lunar activities. NASA, the worthy mention has taken the responsibility to indulge the
students of younger generation to compete with each other to get solutions for the best possible
optimized excavator . This competition is not only about excavating techniques but also an all round
research into Autonomy, material science, Physics etc. The past excavators have already provided a lot of
novel models but features like Dust tolerance techniques and level of autonomy are the challenges this
year . The main goal in mind is to present a prolific Lunabot at NASA for further its space explorations.

The project undertaken has indulged concepts of STEM (Science Engineering Technology
mathematics) which has given an ingenious product after fabrication with a concept of LAMTS(Learn-
Analyse-Make-Test-Share). The project life formulation and implementation have been according to the
systems engineering process. Every phase of the project has been decomposed logically and met the
requirements for an optimized Lunabot. The Lunabot was made abiding by the NASA ESMD competition
rules. The product validation test was done post designing of the Lunabot which would help in achieving
the goal of Team Illuminati.

Team ILLUMINATI LUNABOT DESIGN - ILLUMINATUS

 Contents
1. Introduction
2. Objective
3. Social value
4. Scope and Depth
5. System Engineering
6. Overview
7. Project Life Cycle of lunabot
8. Project Life Cycle Phases
9. Project Formulation
a) Purpose And Activities
I. Technical Planning And Execution
II. System Design
10. Pre-Phase-A:Concept Studies
a) Purpose
b) Activities And Solutions
11. Logical decomposition
12. Phase-A:Concept And Technology Development
13. Phase-B:Preliminary Design and Technology Completion
a) Purpose .
b) System Requirements.
c) Phase Plan: Con-ops
d) Logical Interfacing of Work
e) Technology Development for Frame
i. Design Solution for Frame
ii. End Product Interface Specification
iii. Analysis For Aluminium
f) Product Integration
g) Drive Sub-System
h) Wheel design
i) Dig Sub System
j) Prototype Of Digger
k) Deposit Sub System
14. Communications And Controllers
15. Telecommunications
16. Product Verification
17. Risk Management
18. Final Evaluation
19. Future Scope
20. Conclusion
Objective:
The primary objective of Team Illuminati is to make a Lunabot (a robot which can travel in a lunar surface)
which is in short an excavator of lunar surface rich in Regolith. The Lunabot has to excavate maximum
amount of sand in 10 minutes of time and the Lunabot will be judged based on level autonomy, Dust
projections, size and mass of the vehicle.

Scope and Depth:

The project was underwent using system engineering process and is depicted with the basic system
engineering engine for overall project management.

Figure 1: Source: NASA System Engineering handbook

The team had analysed the basic expectation of EMSD(Electrical and Mechanical Services Department) and
came to a baseline Technical requirements and converged these into a Design solution both mechanically
and electrically. The team had first designed a prototype of 1/10 th size of original Lunabot for formulating
the original design whereas ordering of requirements were done parallely .By the end of this phase the
team was in the start of second semester. The management of the requirements were done in an optimum
way for better solutions and was reviewed at every Key decision point. The product i.e. the Lunabot was
later Verified by testing and later validated The Lunabot was ready for implementation into the
competition at NASA.

The main aim of this paper is to reflect the work done by us and depict the usage of system engineering
from the initial phase to the final phase of Team Illuminati Excavator for the NASA 3 rd annual Lunabotics
mining competition.

System Engineering
Team Illuminatis objective is to compete at NASA 3rd annual Lunabotics Mining competition successfully.
The technical process of the Excavator was designed for smooth movement of schedule . Team illuminati
divided into two teams for the excavator
 Mechanical
Department
Lunabot Making
Electrical ,
Electronics and
Communications
Department
In this technical process of the Lunabot making, the mechanical department had the job of designing the
excavator using softwares like Catia, Pro-e and Auto cad and in parallel the Electrical team worked on the
basic circuitry and interfacing solutions using softwares like Proteus, Keil, MicroC, Matlab, Topspice,
Simulink etc. After the completion of this phase the team started its fabrication work and then interfacing
and testing.

Overview of system engineering of excavator:

The figures below illustrate the phase wise system engineering application. The project consists of seven
phases i.e. from Pre-phase A to Phase F which involves steps from conceptual studies and research done by
team Illuminati to the close out phase where the excavator is ready to be implemented at NASA.

Figure 2 Source: NASA System Engineering Handbook

The above figure gives a clear overview of the Team illuminatis Excavator making. The team had several
KDP and Reviews being performed at every phase of project which will be elaborately discussed in the
further pages.

Project Formulation

Purpose:
Team Illuminatis mission is to create an innovative Excavator satisfying the expectations of NASA and
compete in the ESMD Lunabotics Mining Competition.
Activities & Solutions:
Team illuminati obtain a strategy for better functioning of the team throughout the phase of 6 months.
Project formulation in 2 basic methods:

1. Technical planning and execution:

The basic aim of Team Illuminati is to achieve system engineering management plan (SEMP) and
through this process the project undergoes various phases. The technical planning involved division
of the team into 4 departments and assigning of work for pre phase A and the plan was executed
accordingly with reviewing of work on the weekends.
2. System Design:
In the SEMP, team follows various phases in its life cycle. Therefore the system design if formulated
into 5 steps
a) Expectation Definition b) Requirement definition c) Logical Decomposition
d)Design solution definition e) Decision analysis and Reviews

To use the time efficiently, team illuminati had scheduled its project from the very start of first semester.
The heart target of project was aimed by multi disciplinary members by efficiently integrating their core
knowledge as shown in cycle.

Apart from these Team illuminati concentrates on controls its project

in materials for the excavator. The excavator requires materials for
both fabrication and circuitry part. The materials were planned to be
bought in phase level satisfying the tool requirement definition for
that phase. The below chart shows the material requirement list prior
to phase A of life cycle.

Atmega16 controller
Connecting board
Multi meter
Circuit making

Figure 3
devices
Serial data software
Wi-fi router
Scoop making aluminium sheet
1. Team Illuminatis ultimate goal is to win at NASA
Lunabotics Mining competition. Based on the concept studies the team had decided
2. The preliminary sets of requirements are the Power tools, Chassis material, circuit components,
Motors for prototype. The technical planning has been done is such a way that

Base of Chassis
Testing of motors& Circuit Bucket wheel Chassis
Circuit design

Interfacing with Wi-F

 Phase A: Concept and Technology development and
Phase B: Preliminary Design and Technology completion

Purpose:
Team Illuminati crosses the phase of understanding the studies and now will focus on development of
design and interfacing techniques.

System Requirements:

This phase will require various technology inputs for various subsystems which include

1. The excavator shall Dig, Deposit and drive the lunar simulant.
2. The excavator shall be operated via telecommunications
3. The Communication system of Team illuminati shall interface with NASAs wireless network.
4. The excavator shall collect at least 10 Kg of BP-1 in 10 minutes.
5. The excavator shall weigh below 80 kg including all the circuitry.
6. The Team Illuminatis Lunabot should have dust tolerance techniques.

Phase plan: Con Ops

The team which was initially divided into two fields and the activities for this phase were based on
the phase requirements. The mechanical operations were designed in 4 different processes shown
in figure 5

Technology Deposit
Transverse to Drive
development simulant in
mining area subsystem
for digging collection bin

The basic operation was to design 3 subsystems i.e. the Dig, Drive, Deposit and the frame design. The
electrical Con Ops were based on the requirement definition and as shown in figure 6.

Sending
Communication sending telecommunication data Send control commands
from on board circuit

Architectural Development of Design of excavator:

According to the requirement definition and Con Ops the lunar excavator had to be developed with Digger,
Drive subsystem, Frame, Control and communication subsystems.

Technology development for FRAME:

Design Solution of the Frame
The frame is considered to be a critical subsystem as it interfaces with the rest subsystems. The main
aspect of frame subsystem was to define the material of the frame. Considering the requirements like

The Frame shall not weigh more than 80 Kg.

The frame shall not exceed 1.5 m in length 0.75 m in width and 0.75 in height as per NASA
Lunabotics Rulebook Pdf.
The frame subsystem should be finalised on or before 30th March 2012.

Considering the above functional requirements the team looked upon various materials based on
weight factors. Century extrusions aluminium Equal angle (inch series) bars were chosen as a main
frame material. The section no. are shown in below figure.

Sec. No. A T R Weight Kg/M

1 3.7 3.7 .04 0.53

Outputs:
Key Specification:

a) Dimensions: ( 73*120*63)cms
b) Materials Used: Aluminium Bars of
specification (3.7*3.7*0.4)cms
c) Nuts and Bolts:
Specification: Dia 4mm; Length:
2.5 inches
d) Density: 2.6898 g/cm3
e) Modulus of Elasticity: 68.3 Gpa

End Product Interface Specification:

The Frame is interfaced with all its subsystems like
Dig, drive and deposit including the Nuts and Bolts
by 2 major processes called the
a) Finings b) Gas Welding.

Decision Analysis for Aluminium:

1. Light Metal
drive
2. High strength to weight ratio
3. Corrosion resistance Frame deposit
4. Recyclability

Product Integration dig

The frame subsystem is interfaced with the drive system in the following way.
The chassis made of aluminium is made holes with power driller of appropriate shaft diameter and a
torque motor, Robotics make is fixed and
coupled with a coupling rod into the Drive
i.e the Wheels.

Frame and Drive:

Technical details

Frame with the digger

The technology for interfacing of the Frame with the digger was done with help of mounting a torque
motor (specifications) onto a chassis and putting a bucket
wheel excavator onto it. The controller would maintain the
rpm of the bucket wheel which would excavate the Black
point-1 simulant.
Telescopic Channels:
1. It is used for bearing high loads
2. Provides easy transversing of bucket wheel
mountings.
Lead Screw
Bearing

Frame and deposit subsystem

b) The technology for interfacing of frame and deposit subsystem shall be done by lifting the lunabin
through the grooves of the bar with help of torque motors.
The frame will be having 2 aluminium rods fabricated
vertically with motors attached to the grooves.

Product Integration:
1. Frame is attached with a clamp to the Nylon pulleys.
2. Motors are employed and the it involves the mechanism
if door opening.
Complete Design of the Frame
Drive subsystem:
The main part of the lunar excavator is to make it move for which it requires an efficient drive system. As
per the studies on regolith and previous year Lunabot of Team Illuminati various tradeoffs had to be
performed.

Trade Reports:
1. The wheels used by the previous team was Nylon made
2. The grooving and machining of the wheel has to be performed on basis of design for validating
optimum torque value of the motor.
3. The wheels were decided based on the cost and machining factors.
4. The Density, Tensile strength of Acrylic material was considered to be optimum.

Based on this functional requirements for a drive subsystem were stated

1. The wheels shall not weigh more than 3kg each

2. The diameter of wheels should be restricted to 200 mm
3. The drive shall not be mounted directly on motors
4. The wheel shafts shall properly couple to avoid minimum deflections and maximum torque.

The team had planned a Lunabot with 6 power driven wheels which means each wheel would be provided
with one motor which totally sums up to 6 motors in the drive subsystem.

The motors would be mounted on the to the drive system with the help of coupling rod. The shaft length
of motor is increased and grooved into the wheel. The motors are mounted in this way. The power is
transmitted to the end of the shaft as the below calculations show

motors

motor mounting
drive system
interfacing
motor to wheels:
power
transmission

wheels to groud :
power
transmission

Wheels Design solution definition

Inputs:
 a) Proposed wheel design and comparison
with other designs.
Material: Acrylic

Specifications:

Diameter: 200mm
Shaft Hole Dia: 70mm
Number of Circumferential Hole Dia: 30 mm
Thickness: 75mm

The proposed values of the acrylic made team Illuminati choose this material over others and as it
possessed a specific gravity of 1.1s, Tensile strength= 69Mpa, Modulus of Elasticity= 2800MPa

1. Fabrication:
1.) Acrylic sheets of 12mm thickness is employed
2.) Laser cutting is employed to cut grooved wheels
3.) Wheels are stuck by using chloroform.

Decision Analysis: Acrylic vs Nylon

1. Cutting cant be performed on nylon
2. Acrylic is light weight and can be cut easily.

DIG Subsystem:

This is heart of the excavator which will excavate the black point -1 simulant. Various trade studies were
performed on different kinds of digging techniques. The digger arm subsystem had the following
requirements.

1. The digger wheel shall excavate at least 10 kg of BP-1

2. The dig subsystem shall be rotated within speed of 80 RPM.
3. The dig subsystem should be free from dust projection

bucket The Digger subsystem is divided into 2 sectors i.e. the Bucket
wheel wheel and Bucket components. Team Illuminati decided to use a
horizontally inclined bucket wheel excavator which was highly
bucket novel and innovative after considering past Lunabotics mining
Digger arm competitions. The team had calculated efficiency of this
bucket excavator and compared with the existing ones.
spring
The bucket wheel will consist of 6 buckets mounted at an
bucket
inclination with the chassis. Initially the concept was to throw
converger
the regolith into the collection bin which eventually led to
collection of large amount of cement but the dust projection being high the team had considered an
alternative concept of reducing the speed of rotation and went for collection and dumping concept. This
was tested with help of a prototype.

DECISION ANALYSIS

DIG Cost efficieny weight intrfacing power total

Auger 2 1 1 2 1 7

Scoop 3 2 1 1 2 9

Conveyer 2 2 2 1 1 8

Bucket wheel 1 3 1 3 2 10

Inclined bucket wheel 3 3 2 2 2 12

Prototype of Digger:

Older design:

A similar prototype of the above figure was made to test the efficiency of the Excavator. Firstly the buckets
were made to rotate at a speed of 150 rpm with a concept of throwing regolith into the bucket. This lead
to a huge amount of Dust projection. Later considering the deposition techniques the team decided to
have obstacles interfacing with the frame to drop the regolith. This caused a lot of wastage of regolith onto
the Lunabot

Newer concept:

Further improvements

Decrease in RPM.
Converge technique to create a couple
The team shall calculate spring constant for
appropriate load.

Working principle of the Digger subsystem:

The digger consists of totally 5 components namely the Bucket wheel, Buckets, converge, spring and flange
bearings for all buckets. The bucket wheel would be mounted on the frame of the chassis with the help of
the torque motor and coupling rod. The figure of the bucket wheel is shown in the above figure. The small
excavating buckets would be attached to the bucket wheel with the help of flange bearings and a spring
with specific spring constant. A converging path is defined for all the buckets such that the deposition of
collected regolith is done into the bucket. The small bucket is back to the original position with the help of
spring action.

Bucket:

a) Material Used: Mild Steel

b) Volume it can sweep: 979.170cm3
c) Mass of hollow bucket: 300 gms
d) Mass of sand it can lift: 600 gms

Bucket Wheel:

Material Used: Mild steel and Iron

Fabrication:

1. Iron rod of 1 cm Dia

2. Mild Steel of 3mm thickness.

Calculations:

1. At 30% efficiency , sand taken by six buckets is 1080

gm/rev
2. For 40rpm, sand taken in one minute is 43.2kg

Dumping Mechanicsm:

Components used: Springs

Process: A spring action tends to rotate it when struck by a obstacle. It is done in one direction only.

Deposit Subsystem:

The last subsystem of the lunar excavator is the deposition

technique which includes Design of the Collecting Bin and the
deposition technique into the Lunabin provided at the Luna pit.
Bin design
Deposit The requirement for the deposit subsystem would be
Bin
1. The bin shall be of 4 kg
movement
 2. The bin shall rise to the height of 0.5m 0.73m
from the Luna pit.

Specification of bucket:

1. (39*89*15)cm
2. Nylon pulleys involved: 8
3. Motors Employed: 2

Mechanism: a) Rope and Pulley mechanism

Communications and Controllers:

The communication and controller part has met with the derived requirements
1. The Comm/Control shall be interfaced with NASAs wi-fi network

The Lunabot must be remotely controllable.

Listen channel as shown bellow.

Reset Notify
encyrpter user
Listen to if received
channel data.
Start

2. The Lunabot must have sufficient power to run for 10 minutes

Tele-communications:- In the communications and

Power
Controllers segment there are 2 segments one being the On-board
circuit and other being the Base station Controlling. Both are
controller interfaced with NASA Wi-Fi.
Comm/ Control
Details
communication
1. The base
station system:
feedback
Wifi co-ordinating
receiver operating system with the IP port set with remote
desktop control of the system at distinct place away from the
control unit, on board implanted on Illuminatus.
 5. Power provision for the Lunabot

Illuminatus is self sustained regolith excavator without any continuous consumption of power fed from
external off-board system.

Depending on operation of various assists ang operating characteristics of motor 24v dc supply was
selected obtained by LiPo battery due to its light weight and Compaq size.

As small components require little volts so instead of reducing the voltage level by dissipating in resistor
and increasing losses, reducing efficiency of system step power supply is incorporated as 6v-12v-24v.

6. STABILITY ANALYSIS PERFORMED IN MATLAB CONSIDERING SOME VARIENT PARAMETRIC VALUE

Loaded motor Internal principle of PMDC used.

Tem = kT Ia (1) CONSTANTS ASSUMED:

Ea = kE wm (2)
L= 0.12 J = 1.6e-6 Ke = .0141
Vi = Ea +Ia Ra + La di/dt (3)
B = 6.04e-6 R=7 Kt = .0141
Tem = J dwm/dt + B wm + TL(t) (4)
Tem(s) = kT Ia(s) (5)
Vi(s) = kE wm(s) + Ra Ia (s)+ sLa (s)Ia(s) (6)
Tem (s) = sJ wm(s) + B wm (s) (7)

7. Details and working principle of main circuit and its components.

Onboard Device assembly comprises an on robot notebook which receives the transmitted wi-fi signal after
having hand shake with the sending IP port reflecting the received data on serial port which is given to 232
IC to transmit to MC.

Micro controller used Syncmos SM59R16A3C25PP 1007B NA9072BG is a cisc whose architecture is self set
to use 2 ports of it. It is programmed in C language to give the required O/P on specifically particular key
strokes to operate illuminatus.

5v output is then given to LM293D motor driver as enable to reflect output of 12V to drive motors via H-
bridge, the output is giving as driving voltage to relays which switch at 24V empowering and braking the
motors by plugging.
 8. Selection of operating zone

Plot with

x-axis: Wc -> initial input power when cold (degree

centigrade)

y-axis: TRP -> motor temperature rise (degree centigrade /

watt)

z-axis: Tamb -> ambient temperature (degree centigrade)

formula : (1/(1-((Wc)*(TRP))/(234.5 +
Tamb))

x-axis: Rc ->cold winding resistance in ohms

y-axis: Rh -> hot winding resistance in ohms

z-axis: T -> cold temperature in degree centigrade

Formula : (Rh Rc)/(Rc*(234 + T))

Current log of all motors used under loaded
condition

System response to step input

 9. interfacing of base station and on board circuit with NASA wifi.

Product Verification:
The team now had to perform various product verification techniques which were considered essential.
The team performed few tests such as Environmental, High/ Low Voltage limits, Manufacturing and
Random defects.
The team had some of the problems

Team Illuminati performs Product verification

test on the bucket wheel excavator.

Material: Cement

Excavator efficiency: 40 %
GANTT CHART

Project management:
Schedule
Budget

Bill of materials :

Sl.No. Material Rate Quantity Price

MECHANICAL HARDWARE
1 JPL BEARINGS Rs.20 6 Rs.120
2 24" TELESCOPIC CHANNELS Rs.192 2 Rs.384
3 11mm BRIGHT ROD Rs.189 6 Rs.1134
ALUMINIUM BAR-
4 300mm*3mm Rs.735 1 Rs.735
5 ALUMINIUM BAR- 40"*4" Rs.550 2 Rs.1100
5mm THICK ALUMINIUM
6 ROD- Rs.600 7 Mts Rs.4200
3.8CM*3.8CM
7 8mm LEAD SCREW Rs.50 1.6 Mts Rs.100
8 4mm dia 3" BOLTS Rs.12 100 Rs.1200
9 4mm dia NUTS & WASHERS Rs.2 300 Rs.600
10 6mm dia 3" BOLTS Rs.20 50 Rs.1000
11 6mm dia NUTS & WASHERS Rs.4 200 Rs.800
12 PULLEYS Rs.75 8 Rs.600
13 L-CLAMPS Rs.35 40 Rs.1400
14 4cm - DOOR HINGES Rs.20 10 Rs.200
15 6cm - DOOR HINGES Rs.35 10 Rs.350
16 5mm THICK ACRYLIC SHEET Rs.120 4 sq.mts Rs.480
17 ALUMINIUM PULLLEYS Rs.500 2 Rs.1000
18 5mm THICK METAL WIRE Rs.80 10 Rs.800
19 ACRYLIC WHEELS Rs.3000 6 Rs.18000
20 SPRINGS Rs.20 20 Rs.400
21 BUCKET WHEEL FRAME Rs.7500 1 Rs.7500
22 MOTOR COUPLINGS Rs.20 13 Rs.260
TOTAL Rs.26163
ELECTRONIC HARDWARE
1 MOTORS Rs.6500 13 Rs.84500
2 RELAYS Rs.500 9 Rs.4500
3 CONTROL BOARD Rs.3000 3 Rs.9000
4 MICRO CONTROLLERS Rs.350 8 Rs.2800
5 MOTOR DRIVERS Rs.120 20 Rs.2400
6 CONNECTORS Rs.50 10 mts Rs.500
TOTAL Rs.1,03,700
TOTAL LUNABOT COST Rs.1,29,863
Operations and sustainment:
The first task at the close out was to perform the product evaluation. The team took charge and evaluated
it so as to form a baseline of performance and such that it can be
improved. The evaluation was done product wise and subsystem
wise

a) Excavating test for the excavator to determine the

efficieny
b) Drive test in cement to analyse the movement.
c) Controlling practice to all the team mates
d) Transfer of knowledge to team mates
e) Dismantling of the Lunabot for carrying it to Orlando

Problems:

a) Spring test: deformation of springs was

considered and spare springs were taken
b) Welding : Welding near the mountings led to
deformation and deflections in shafts which
had to be reset.

Close out:
The team after performing several evaluations decided to undergo modifications in its few parts such as
springs which had faced a few problems such as losing spring action. The product has to be disassembled
and carried to Orlando.
 References and Sources:

1. www.nasa.gov
2. Nasa LMC rulebook
3. NASA system engineering handbook
4. Team pumpernickel system engineering paper Auburn University

5. Beale, D. and Bonometti, J. Chapter 2: Systems Engineering (SE) The Systems Design Process.
http://www.eng.auburn.edu/~dbeale/ESMDCourse/Chapter2.htm
6. http://libsys.uah.edu/library/incose/Contents/Papers/95/95106.pdf
7. System papers by Team CASTOR,
8. Lexco ESMD system Paper