Project Kratos: A Mars Rover

Project Kratos aims at building a fully autonomous mars rover prototype for Indian Rover Challenge 2020 and University Rover Challenge 2020.

The rover has a double lambda rocker-bogie based suspension system fitted with a 5 degree of freedom arm. It is powered by a 500W battery and can function for 2 hours on continuous operation. The rover has both manual and autonomous modes. In autonomous mode, the rover can traverse between GPS points autonomously, using SLAM for localization and RRT for navigation.

The rover also contains an on-board laboratory for life detection. The soil sample is collected using the gripper of the arm manipulator and is then used for various wet tests. The rover is also fitted with a reflectance spectrometer for in-depth soil composition analysis.

I initiated and led this project from May'18 to Apr'20, and my responsibilities included managerial as well as technical involvement. I primarily worked on the mechanical design of the rover and arm and on the Autonomous navigation of the rover. 

The video below is part of the System Acceptance Review package for University Rover Challenge,2020, and most of the information about the project can be found in it.

GitHub Organization of Project Kratos can be found here

Facebook Page: Project Kratos

Instagram Page: @kratosbitsgoa