Nomad

Nomad is an open-source, (mostly) 3D printable rover.

This is a project to create a rover platform for experimenting with various kinds of electronics and software components (e.g. IMUs, cameras, lidar, solar panels, computer vision, autonomous navigation).

The mechanical platform is a rocker-bogie design (similar to NASA's Mars rovers), with the intention that the rover can handle a wide variety of unknown terrains, both indoors and outdoors. I hope it will be able to scale mechanically in the same way that Sojourner/Opportunity/Curiosity has scaled to different sizes.

It is not designed to go fast.

I'm trying to make the platform open and reproducable, so the Nomand should:

• be 3D Printable. Perhaps if there's demand the parts can be mass-produced, but replacement parts should be 3D printable, possibly with degraded performance (e.g. simplified axial systems).
• use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) parts as far as possible. You should be able to buy bearings, servos, motors and the like form your local hobby store.
• use COTS, open electronics like Arduino and Raspberry-PI as far as possible.
• use and generate Open Source software.

You can follow @calvinrobotics on Twitter for updates.