Working for an organisation like NASA is a dream for many – working with talented people, using advanced equipment, and involved in some of the most complex projects in the world.
One engineering student from Curtin University recently lived out this dream during a six-month internship at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), bringing back with him some key skills.
Chris Norman, a fourth-year mechatronics student, was selected for the internship in California, along with Tom Paynter, a physics and electronic and communication engineering student, who worked on a drone project.
Norman started the internship in Pasadena in January this year where he worked on a folding robot with a pop-up feature that allows disposable robots to move across Mar’s terrain.
The project, which is called PUFFER – Pop-up Flat-Folding Explorer Robot – utilises origami-inspired robots as a low-cost solution to navigating the difficult terrain of Mars, comprising a collapsible body and a ‘parent’ spacecraft.
“[NASA is] going to send 10 or so of these up to Mars along with the next Mars lander robot,” Norman said.
“When the rover drives around, there are a lot of areas that are of really high science interest to us, but we can’t actually get to them with a big robot because there are rocks or it’s too steep or just too narrow to be able to fit a big robot.”
Deploying a series of smaller robots that fold and un-fold themselves would give researchers access to these areas.
But one of the main difficulties of developing the robots was designing the foldable aspect, according to Norman, who did some of the mechanical design.
“You couldn't position actuators or components or any of the things that you’d normally just put wherever you want … because they would be in the way of this folding mechanism,” he said.
“I had to be really creative about how I went about designing it to ensure that the robot could still fold properly, but would also still be able to drive around.”
One way Norman did this was through iterating the whole design using 3D software, and then printing it out on a 3D printer.
“We also had a couple of other techniques that we were using to rapidly prototype the robots. I could see within the space of a couple of hours whether or not the design was on the right track and what I needed to change,” Norman said.
“Then I could make revisions and potentially fix issues, [whereas] with a more traditional design process, it would take a while longer to fix.”
Norman said the design went through one major iteration, and estimates a total of about 30 other iterations.
Four full-time employees and one other intern worked on the robot, with one of the employees mentoring him and guiding him through the project.
“But really everybody that I talked to there, they were always happy to offer advice and their experience as well. [My mentor] wasn’t the only person who helped me learn to grow,” Norman said.
There were also other learning opportunities for Norman, such as through daily seminars or conferences.
“Even people who had PhDs and beyond were still going to all these talks because they’re always, always learning. Other than that, I was doing things like 3D printing, cold torrents testing with cold chambers and 3D designing,” Norman said.
And while his first day was overwhelming and he needed to absorb a lot of new information, towards the end of his internship, he looked back on his notes from his first day and was able to see how much he had learnt.
One thing in particular that stood out for Norman was the way NASA staff approached problems.
“They’d have a problem that was seemingly impossible about something on a planet, for example. They would go and just brainstorm all these different really crazy solutions. Then they would pick a few of them and they’d prototype them,” Norman said.
“Even if it seemed really crazy and not likely to succeed, the technical skills that they had and the technology there made it possible.”
Some of this technology included some of the best in the world, such as a cold chamber that could go down to -135 degrees Celcius to test temperatures on Mars, and what is known as the Ferrari of 3D printing.
“The reason why it is called the Ferrari is because it cost as much as a Ferrari,” he said.
Norman said now that he’s back in Australia, some of the key lessons he learnt at NASA is being put to use, such as being creative when he’s tackling engineering problems.
“I’m applying that sort of thinking now to my bachelor’s thesis project, which is trying to count craters on Mars using a program. I'm trying to think outside the box a little bit on how we can do that,” he said.
Norman is also trying to pass on what he learnt to others and getting involved in mentoring high school kids in robotics and talking to primary school children.
“I had a lot of people mentoring me and helping me learn new things and inspiring me. Since I've got back to Perth, it’s been really great because now I’ve been able to pass that onto other people over here to try and inspire them to achieve what they want,” he said.
[Image: An early PUFFER protype on a field test.]
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