COSMOSWorks lightens the load on the Mars Rover

Company Alliance Spacesystems, Inc. Industry Aerospace/Defense Location U.S.A. Product Used COSMOSWorks Type of Analysis Linear Static, Thermal, Optimization More Details Customer Interview Interview with Chief Engineer Jim Staats

The Challenge
One current project of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is MER, the Mars Exploration Rover. ASI is designing the robotic arm on the front of each rover. These arms are four feet long with five degrees of freedom and scientific instruments at the end. They have five actuators, several moving joints, and conductor wires along their lengths. The arms must meet exacting requirements for factors such as stiffness while staying below a certain mass.

The Solution
ASI has been using COSMOSWorks and its optimization functions for detailed stress analysis and mass minimization of the arms' parts. The engineers vary the parts' geometry to reduce mass while controlling the maximum allowable stress or deflection. The results are often striking.

"Using some of the optimization features," says ASI vice president Jim Staats, "we can typically take 15-20% additional mass out." That doesn't sound like much, but if you wanted to reduce your car 20%, he observes, "you'd have to take the whole engine and transmission and throw it out. So it's a big chunk." COSMOSWorks is the tool that makes that possible.

Summary and Metrics:

• Reduced turn around time from 3 months to 3 weeks.
• Using optimization features, ASI can typically reduce mass by 15-20%.