Space Robotics · Mentorship · Engineering Leadership — 2023 — Present
HSM Aries — Space Systems & Robotics
Student planetary robotics initiative at Hochschule Schmalkalden.
LEAP-One / built by the HSM Aries student team
000° / 360° · 0%
[01] Mobility
Six driven wheels.
Botwheel BLDC hub motors on ODrive S1 controllers, 180 mm of ground clearance, one 25.6 V bus.
[02] Suspension
Passive rocker-bogie.
Geometry keeps all six wheels in contact while the ground refuses to stay flat.
[03] Manipulation
A 6-DoF arm.
An Igus ReBeL arm flips switches on the maintenance panel and lifts sample containers.
[04] Science
A 530 mm auger.
Deep sampling at 300 mm and below, cached on board for the science task.
[05] Mentoring
KK's part.
Identity, the website, and reviews on manufacturability, suspension and the electronic bay. The engineering credit belongs to the students.
Scroll to rotate · Drag to nudge
Overview
HSM Aries is a competitive student engineering team designing Mars-class planetary analogue exploration rovers. KK Achari serves as Industry Mentor, advising on manufacturability, structural integration, and the link to industrial fabrication.
Challenge
Bridging the gap between conceptual university design models and rugged, field-survivable physical machinery that performs in harsh outdoor competition environments (such as the European Rover Challenge).
Approach
Providing direct industrial mentorship in machining tolerances, wiring harnesses, modular electronic enclosures, suspension dynamics, and system-level qualification testing.
Architecture
- 01
Modular Architecture: Decoupled mechanical sub-assemblies enabling rapid paddock swaps during timed competition rounds.
- 02
Electronic Bay Enclosure: Sealed, thermally-dissipating chassis protecting high-density compute from fine dust and sand.
- 03
Manufacturing Liaison: Facilitating precision CNC and sheet-metal support via industrial manufacturing networks.
- 04
Visual Identity & Badging: Authoring the original LEAP-One mission badge and dark-theme site redesign.
Specifications
- Competition Stage
- European Rover Challenge (ERC) Finalist
- Mentorship Focus
- Manufacturability, Suspension, Electronic Bay
- University
- Hochschule Schmalkalden, Germany
- Next Evolution
- Leap-2 Rover in active development
Stack
ROS / ROS 2 · SolidWorks / CAD · CNC Machining · CAN Bus · Brushless BLDC · LiDAR · Stereo Vision
Attribution
Collaborative student robotics initiative at Hochschule Schmalkalden. Mentored by KK Achari.