Best Place To BuildThis IIT Madras team is building rovers & drones for MARS EXPLORATION | BP2B: Student Edition! Ep.05
CHAPTERS
Team Anveshak’s mission: prototype Mars rovers + a complementary drone
Host Vidhi meets Adithi (team lead) who explains what Team Anveshak builds at IIT Madras. The team’s focus is on robust rover operations inspired by real missions like NASA’s Perseverance/Curiosity and India’s Chandrayaan, with a drone module added to extend capability.
- •Team builds prototype Mars rovers and a drone module
- •Goal: robust mobility + mission-like operations (manipulation, autonomy, science)
- •Motivation includes exploration and the search for extraterrestrial life
- •Rovers are designed as testbeds for space-tech learning and competition performance
Why pair a rover with a drone in planetary exploration?
Adithi describes how rovers already reach places humans can’t, and drones extend that reach further to areas rovers struggle with. Together, they broaden accessible terrain and improve exploration efficiency.
- •Rovers access hazardous/remote terrain beyond human reach
- •Drones can reach locations rovers can’t and expand exploration radius
- •Combined rover+drone approach increases coverage and mission flexibility
- •Partnership supports terrain scouting and safer decision-making
Why Mars: habitability clues and Earth-like parallels
The conversation shifts to why Mars is a primary target. Adithi explains Mars’ relative similarity to Earth’s conditions (from prior research) and the broader goal of understanding whether Mars could have supported—or could someday support—life and habitation.
- •Mars is compelling due to partial Earth-like parallels suggested by research
- •Two big questions: past/present life and potential habitability
- •Missions aim to infer whether Mars once had Earth-like conditions
- •Anveshak’s work connects student prototypes to real exploration goals
Rover capabilities and team structure: 50 students, five modules
Adithi outlines the rover’s core functions: semi-autonomous navigation, remote operation, and a manipulator for field tasks. She also breaks down how ~50 students are organized across modules that cover mechanical, electronics/software, astrobiology, drone, and finance/sponsorship.
- •Semi-autonomous rover with remote-control fallback
- •Manipulator can flip switches, pick rocks, and collect soil samples
- •Five modules: mechanical; electronics+software; astrobiology; drone; CPR (sponsorship/finance)
- •Interdisciplinary collaboration is essential to integrate subsystems
Simulating Mars on Earth: competition terrains and base-station constraints
The team tests in Mars-like arenas set up by national/international competitions—rugged ground, dust, craters—and replicates mission constraints. Operators often cannot directly view the rover and must rely on camera feeds, mirroring real remote operations.
- •Competitions create rugged ‘Mars-like’ terrains (dust, craters, rocks)
- •Base station simulates remote operations: operators can’t look directly at rover
- •Navigation relies on camera/sensor feeds under constrained visibility
- •Missions typically include manipulation, autonomy, and astrobiology tasks
Competition emotions and field failures: topple, recover, finish the mission
Adithi describes the stress and excitement of operating under competition rules, especially as a runner close to the rover but unaware of operator intent. She shares a dramatic incident where the rover attempted a 70° climb, toppled onto its antenna, then resumed successfully—demonstrating robustness.
- •Runner perspective: seeing rover move without base-station context is surreal
- •Operations can look chaotic but are purposeful under constraints
- •Rover toppled on a 70° slope attempt yet survived and resumed quickly
- •Field testing validates durability and reveals real-world edge cases
Meet ‘Isaac’ (10th rover iteration): testing sprint and upcoming challenges
Post-semester, the team is deep in daily testing for the International Rover Challenge (IRC) in late January. Adithi explains their alphabetical rover naming tradition and describes the intense iteration cycle—fault-finding, simulating missions, and pushing reliability before competition.
- •Current rover is the 10th iteration, named ‘Isaac’ (alphabetical tradition)
- •Prep involves constant testing, fault checks, and competition simulation
- •Team runs late-night iteration cycles to improve reliability
- •Next on the roadmap: IRC, IROC (ISRO Robotics Challenge), IRDC, and aiming for URC (Utah)
Track record and milestones: design awards, autonomy wins, and international placements
Adithi lists key achievements, highlighting strong performance in autonomy and design-focused events. The team’s results demonstrate sustained iteration and credibility across Indian and international competitions.
- •1st at Caterpillar Autonomy Challenge (Shaastra) + Best Rover Design + cash prize
- •2nd at IRC 2024; 4th at IROC 2024 (autonomous rover focus)
- •Participation in IROC drone edition and strong history including URC placement
- •Invited for preliminary testing at an Indian Mars Desert Research Station analogue
Designing for Mars vs Earth: materials, constraints, and mission objectives
Mechanical lead Ayush explains how Mars design differs from Earth prototypes: extreme environments, material science tradeoffs, and higher stakes when hardware is irreplaceable. For student competitions, designs balance realism with manufacturability and cost while still targeting mission-like performance.
- •Mars demands extreme-environment design and higher reliability due to cost and irretrievability
- •Material choices on Mars can involve expensive alloys (e.g., titanium)
- •Earth prototypes optimize for competition goals with ‘Mars-like’ terrain, not Mars atmosphere/temperature
- •Design is driven by mission objectives—traversal, manipulation, and subsystem integration
3D printing transformation: wheels, gearboxes, steering, and iterative innovation
Ayush details how the rover evolved from pneumatic tires and aluminum-heavy builds to significant 3D-printed components. The team now prints wheels, arm parts, grippers, and cycloidal gearboxes, enabling fast iteration, weight reduction, and new features like steering improvements.
- •Shift from pneumatic/foam wheels to fully 3D-printed wheels after reliability issues
- •~30% of rover now 3D-printed (wheels, arm parts, gearboxes, gripper)
- •Cycloidal gearbox implemented as a fully 3D-printed component
- •3D printing accelerates experimentation, reduces weight, and supports annual innovation
Budget realities: cost per rover and how printing reduces spend
The team discusses the financial side of building advanced student rovers. Isaac-class rovers cost roughly ₹3.5–4 lakh, with 3D printing cutting costs by ~20–30% and freeing budget for additional innovations like steering and custom mechanisms.
- •Typical rover cost: ~₹3.5–4 lakh per build
- •3D printing reduces cost by ~20–30%
- •Savings are reinvested into new features and R&D (a ‘flywheel’ effect)
- •Cost decisions balance performance, reliability, and manufacturability
Hard lessons from the field: the ‘one loose bolt’ failure and why checklists matter
Ayush recounts a competition in Turkey where sparks and smoke appeared and a mission was abandoned—ultimately traced to a single loose bolt causing wheel resistance. The story underlines how tiny assembly errors can cascade into major failures and lost rankings.
- •Drive motor incident (sparks/smoke) halted a mission for safety
- •Root cause: one loose bolt causing wheel resistance
- •Small mechanical/electrical issues can cost entire missions and rankings
- •Reinforces rigorous inspection, assembly discipline, and reliability culture
Drone + rover roles, autonomy on Mars, and the onboard compute stack
Electronics/software lead Soham explains how drone and rover collaborate: scouting, acting as a comms relay, and preventing costly navigation mistakes. He also breaks down semi-autonomy: operator-approved paths, slow verified execution, and dynamic re-planning using sensors and an NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano.
- •In India, drone and rover often compete separately; international formats expect cooperation
- •Drone can scout faster, map objects/routes, and act as a mid-air antenna relay
- •Mars autonomy is semi-autonomous: operator approves planned paths before execution
- •Sensor stack includes stereo camera, LiDAR, GPS, IMU; compute via NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano
In-house engineering: custom PCBs, motor drivers, and robust electrical architecture
Soham describes the rover’s power and control design: dual 24V batteries split between compute/arm and drive, microcontrollers on custom PCBs, and motor drivers built by the team. Doing critical electronics in-house improves reliability and avoids common competition-killing issues like reverse polarity failures.
- •Two 24V ~24,000 mAh batteries split load between compute/arm and drive
- •Custom PCBs with microcontrollers handle sensor I/O and communication with Jetson
- •Motor drivers are team-designed to prevent failures (e.g., reverse polarity)
- •Mechanical manufacturing and 3D printing largely done in-house; software is ~50% custom + open-source
Astrobiology module: drilling, onboard spectrometry, and biosignature detection
Abhishek explains the rover’s ‘mobile lab’ workflow: drill and store soil, then analyze it on-board using a 3D-printed, low-cost spectrometer. The module aims to detect biosignatures (proteins, sugars, fats) using spectroscopy, ML-driven site selection, and chemistry tests like Benedict’s reagent.
- •Mission: collect, store, and analyze soil samples on the rover itself
- •3D-printed in-house spectrometer reduces cost (~₹30k vs ~₹1 lakh off-the-shelf)
- •Targets biosignatures such as proteins/carbohydrates/sugars/fats
- •Site selection uses terrain knowledge + ML rock classification; module is deeply interdisciplinary (mech/electrical/software/chem/bio)
Women in STEM and Anveshak’s long-term vision: building toward real Mars missions
Adithi shares her path into mechanical engineering, navigating stereotypes with family support, and advises women to pursue what they truly enjoy. She reflects on staying with the team through hardships, preferring hands-on engineering, and sets a bold vision: advancing space tech and ultimately sending a rover to Mars.
- •Personal STEM motivation rooted in interest in physics/math and family influence
- •Acknowledges stereotypes around women in mechanical engineering and overcoming hesitation
- •Advice: prioritize your interests over external judgment; persistence matters
- •Future vision: deepen space-tech capability and aim to someday send a rover to Mars
