College

College of Engineering and Polymer Science

Date of Last Revision

2024-09-19 12:08:50

Major

Aerospace Systems Engineering

Honors Course

ME Senior Design Project

Number of Credits

6

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Date of Expected Graduation

Spring 2024

Abstract

Due to the increasing availability of space travel as not only a scientific exploration but a commercial exploration, there is a need for an onsite repair station that can be deployed in the event of aircraft maintenance, damage, or failure. We have been tasked with researching and creating a prototype of an automatous robot that can be attached to a spacecraft body, move along the surface while avoiding obstacles, scan for damage, 3D print a repair piece, and then make the repair, all without the need of direct human input. Our team, as will be discussed throughout, was tasked with developing the mobile robot unit that will attach and traverse the spacecraft hull using adaptive path planning procedures. In this report, we will discuss the choices made when determining the project needs of our robot. Most of our project revolved around research and development into several different variations of automatous robots which include but are not limited to gecko feet, tank treads, and an attached arm. The focus of our study was to determine the possible use cases for attachment methods, which mainly revolved around the use of gecko tape – a biomimicry-designed tape that can attach to surfaces when pulled into tension, much like how a gecko pulls itself onto upright surfaces.

Research Sponsor

Dr. Ajay Mahajan

First Reader

Kayla Dremann

Second Reader

Motaz Magdy M. Roshdy

Honors Faculty Advisor

Dr. Manigandan Kannan

Proprietary and/or Confidential Information

No

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