Get Involved!
Are you an innovative thinker?
Do you want to get away from the theoretical what-if?
Are you up for a challenge?
The great thing about the York University Rover Team is that there are tons of ways for you to get involved! We have our hands in fundraising initiatives, demonstrations, campus outreach events, and mainly in research and development. Our team's goal is to build a prototypical Mars rover mobile platform that is to complete in the University Rover Challenge in June 2010.
The sub-teams and their duties are described as follows:
Marketing & Finance:
This group of individuals is responsible for creating the marketing tools necessary to ensure that the rover team is fully financed for this project. This entails designing creative materials such as presentations, videos, pamphlets and portfolios. Also thrown into the mix are meetings with potential sponsors, delivering gripping presentations about investing in the York University Rover Team, and networking with large companies.
Build/Mechanical:
There are three main tasks that this motivated group of hands on individuals is responsible for: inventory control, design and build! They are the turning gears of the entire team. They do everything from ordering parts, maintaining all tools and machinery, design the rover structure within given specifications and constraints while physically machining parts from scratch to meet their design plans! If you can’t sit still, this is definitely the team for you!
Development:
Every rover is just a shell until it has brains and organs. The development team is solely responsible for breathing life into our prototype! This group is so large that it is further subdivided into four groups: Communications, Computer Vision, Sensors and Electronics.
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Communications - This group of individuals is responsible for designing and creating a stable and robust mobile platform on which the rover will operate ensuring the quality of service being provided.
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Computer Vision - The vision team is responsible for making a camera network which is relayed back to the base station via the mobile platform in real time. This group deals with issues pertaining to pan tilt freedom, stereovision, depth perception and automation of various tasks without compromising the frame rate.
- Electronics - The electronics team designs and builds all the circuitry necessary for the rover operations while minimizing the overall power consumption. This team has to ensure that every motor and part selected meets the desired requirements for optimal performance in the Utah dessert conditions.
- Sensors - Lastly, this team of students is responsible for selecting the appropriate sensors needed to fulfill the various tasks of the URC again being within the constraints and specifications.
Science:
The Science team is responsible for the extremophile and sample return task. The team is centered around devising methods for finding life on Mars. They do a lot of science related research and work closely with the mechanical and development team to come up with the best methods to complete the task successfully and efficiently.