It was quite a challenge to design a rover which will have wheels and which will be able to move - but using only FDM printers, that is, to print a rover using only extrusion without the support. The challenge was interesting because in order to print the moveable rover the wheels have to be perfectly circular and it is impossible to achieve such a thing if the rovers are printed in the driving position.

The solution was to rotate the rover and print it as it is lying on the side. In this way perfectly circular wheels can be printed as the printer can draw the complete wheel sruface on the bed plate. After discovering this mechanism, the door was open to explore different possibilities and variations.

The most important thing about this kind of rover design is that it can be implemented in space explorations. One can imagine that on other planets the machines can print rovers which can be then used to carry stuff or perform other tasks. Thats why I try to explore what kind of different purposes these rovers can have. Some of them will be just explorers with the task to collect information and monitor the situation in the base, like some sort of police. That is where the Badass Rover and Hugo Rover come to scene.

Next to the police vechicles we need to have a rover with weapons on as we dont know if we will run on ailens while exploring other plants. Thats why I designed a Robo Rover which has the responsability to use weapons if neccessary. It can also be used to destroy rocks or obstacles which create problems for other rovers. It has six wheels and the middle wheels are detached to ease the movement across unfavourable terrain.

Of course, we need rovers to carry different materials to the base. So the cargo rovers are also very important. Tesra Rover and Simple Rover can do this task, although the Simple Rover is a hybrid of explorer and cargo rover type.

Modularrity is another feature which I explored because i imagine the situation that depending on the task bigger or smaller rover may be required. Thats why i designed modular Six Wheel Rover, which can be further expanded to create a train like formation.

Printing using only extrusion is the most economic way of 3d printing but it requires a bit different approach to design. As it is shows with these rovers anything can be designed and printed using extrusion only, but it requires effort on the design level. I am very excited about this project because it is a very good idea which can be easily performed on other planets without the presence of humans.

For now these couple of different rovers can actually perform many tasks on other planets. At the end it will only be neccessary to transport a 3d printer to the other planet and the printer shall do the rest. The material for the printing on other planets may be the problem, but there can be many options to develop. Some materials can be grown using sun, the others can be collected on the planet and then used for printing. Anyways, i think this may be a great discourse regarding space exploration and possible transportation system on the other planets.

MArch Poturak Semir

semirp@treedinstitute.com

www.treedinstitute.com - Home of Super Creations

Semir Poturak

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