Curiosity Rover

With all of the news about Mars lately, I thought the NASA 3D printable Curiosity rover model http://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/detail/mars-rover-curiosity was really cool, but wanted to give it a little extra something. Looking around the office, I realized I had almost everything I needed to make a sensing and moving rover using the NASA 3D printed file of the Curiosity.

The NASA Curiosity rover is an amazing machine, and having one of my own to play with and modify has been a lot of fun. I have yet to see a 3D model of the rovers used in “The Martian” but I look forward to doing something similar with that one too.

Version 2.0 has continuous rotation servos in the center wheels instead of an external shaft and pulley system. They do not slip off the wheels as on the original and have more realistic appearance.

Also added were servos on either side to align and steer the front and rear wheels for better rolling and turning performance.

I Printed It

It was a good print on the 1st or second run !

Modified it for motion

The interior of the rover had to be cleared out to make room for motors, battery, Arduino. Version 1.0 with servos attached to pulleys shown

Revised it

The first pulley system to drive the center wheels was clever since it ran through the suspension system of the rover. Installing micro servos in the wheels was much better.