SPEAR

Our purpose and goals

The SPEAR team is a multidisciplinary project group working to build a Mars rover to compete in international competitions. We designed and created our first rover and brought it out to the Canadian International Rover Challenge where it exceeded our expectations.

In the coming year we plan to take what we learned at competition and apply it to a brand new design, building from the ground up. We are redesigning the chassis, changing the circuitry, and rewriting the code. That means that new members will have the chance to see a project through from start to finish, from research and design to final product.

Who we are & how we work

We have members from various programs and skill levels, and we provide an opportunity to apply what you learn in class towards a challenging and rewarding goal. We are just entering our second year of being an active club, and within a single year we made some amazing progress. SPEAR works by assigning parts of the overall project to various specialized sub-teams, testing the designs, then integrating them together. The sub-teams include: mechanical, electrical and computer, science, finance, marketing, and administration.

What we're working on now

This year our goal is to get the rover to the University Rover Challenge hosted in Utah. It is a larger, more advanced competition than the CIRC, and in order to get accepted into the competition we will need to be smart and efficient with our design this year.

• Our mechanical team will be working on making a more flexible suspension system, a more robust chassis, and a more maneuverable arm and hand.

• Our electrical and computer teams will be working together to improve our communications systems, add autonomous driving and image detection, and upgrade our sensors and circuitry.

• The science team will have to make sure that our rover's scientific instrumentation reaches the level required by the URC, such as sterile environments for soil collection and developing more efficient ways to test our samples.

• The finance team will be working to get new corporate sponsors to raise funds for the project, and will manage the budget for the club.

• Marketing will be working to raise awareness and participation in the club through advertisement in various forms, social media, and outreach, as well as creating the Systems Acceptance Review, a video detailing the design of the rover, which is a key element to getting accepted into the URC.

• Administration's task will be to make sure that this all goes according to plan, they will organize overall team meetings, maintain communication to ensure that everyone is on schedule, and will make sure that we meet the requirements for the URC.

As of right now we have already started the design process for our next rover, and are working to integrate new members into the club. If you are interested in joining you can visit join.spaceualberta.ca for more info!

How we interact with the Student Innovation Centre

We have moved our primary meeting place to the Student Innovation Centre, and it provides us a fantastic, modern space to collaborate between our subteams and coordinate the project. It gives us a solid location with all the tools you could want to share ideas, designs, and demonstrations. We look forwards to further using the space in the coming year.