Rover Drive Module at the Aerospace Robotics Lab

Context

The Aerospace Robotics Lab (Yashwanth Nakka) has a small four-wheeled rover that the group uses as a test platform for robotics software and autonomy work. I spent about two months in fall 2025 on its mechanical side, mainly the corner drive modules.

Drive module redesign

Each corner of the rover is a holonomic drive module: a wheel and its drive hardware packaged into one unit. I redesigned the module’s structure from two L-brackets into a single shell so the module is easier to service and swap as a unit. The work was packaging and integration: fitting the drive hardware, shafts, and wheel into the shell and getting its mounting interface to the chassis right.

Sectioned CAD view through one wheel and drive module, showing the internal packaging of the drive hardware, shafts, bearings, structure, and wheel. — Section view through the redesigned drive module.

Close CAD render of one drive module: housing, wheel with rollers, and fasteners. — One drive module.

CAD of the small four-wheeled rover: a compact rectangular chassis with a corner drive module at each corner and sensor and computing hardware mounted on top. — The small rover test platform. The drive module at each corner is the part I worked on.

I also designed an articulated camera mount, a multi-joint arm that positions a compact camera head relative to a fixed base, used to test vision-sensor placement and alignment.

CAD render of an articulated camera mount: a multi-joint arm positioning a compact camera head relative to a fixed base. — Articulated camera mount for the rover test platform, the other mechanical piece from this stint.

Scope

This was a short, mechanical-only contribution to a platform the lab already had. The rover’s software, autonomy work, and the rest of its hardware were the group’s.