Team Captain
Sooner Rover Team (2025-2026)
THE CHALLENGE:
Led a multidisciplinary team of approximately 50 students developing an integrated rover, coordinating mechanical, electrical, autonomous, and science work toward University Rover Challenge requirements.
The rover had to combine mobility, manipulation, science, communications, and autonomous navigation into one serviceable platform. Progress depended on managing shared interfaces and testing dependencies across student subteams with different technical responsibilities.
THE SOLUTION:
As captain, I coordinated development across the technical subteams and supported a subsystem-first integration approach. Weekly integration meetings, milestone reviews, and shared documentation connected individual design decisions with the overall vehicle and mission requirements.
The team’s architecture combined a six-wheel double-bogie chassis, modular arm and science package, distributed microcontrollers connected over CAN bus, and a centralized onboard computer. Wireless communications supported telemetry and camera feeds, while the autonomous group developed ROS 2 navigation capabilities. These systems represent the combined work of the team.
My direct mechanical contributions included the arm and science-package redesigns described on their dedicated project pages. At the system level, the portfolio focus is coordination, interface management, maintainability, and preparation for integrated testing.
RESULTS + NEXT STEPS:
The team developed the 2026 rover and prepared its System Acceptance Review documentation. The redesigned subsystems and documentation provide a foundation for subsequent development and testing.
Continued work centers on representative field testing, measured subsystem performance, and reliable integration. Component tests should be distinguished from completed mission demonstrations when reporting progress.