Lutetium
(the signs in the court yard is my favorite piece)
Do you need any sort of security clearance for the work that you do ?
would imagine they're part of the media dept.
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/thestudio/
The Studio at JPL
The Studio is a team of designers, artists, makers, strategists, and thinkers. We are passionate about helping scientists and engineers imagine the future, and giving people a sense of awe about the universe.
Not for the work I do
@morgan oh yeah! I have not work with the studio, but I'm a fan :)
Did most people who work at JPL go to top unis?
eh
What software management tool(s) do you use?
I know an engineer at JPL who went to UC Merced, so not sure uni matters
there are lots of folks from MIT, Caltech, etc.. but there are also folks like me from Cal Poly Pomona or whatever. Uni doesn't matter IMO
I brought a bunch of PCBs and robots to my interview
figured results speak louder than "i passed ECE 405"
Nice!
@James Finch we have a lot of in house tools, but generic things like MS Projects and JIRA are used too
Are the change control processes still paper based or are they migrated to software apps?
Oh no, JIRA... *Your board has been updated [refresh]*
software with paper backup
custom in-house tools are a double edge sword. They allow for flexibility, but that also means that they can grow into these complex UX nightmares
I should also mention, the 'prototype' project im working on
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6PzGLcd_Io
oh, shiny!
Woah
Awesome! :D
It's called LLAMA. We build Rev 1.0 back in October and we are almost done building Rev 2.0, so you should be seeing a press release on that soon
built*
Nice!
This was actually the first project i've worked on here where I got a chance to drastically improve the design of something.
what's the use case?
You're partnered with ARL?
What did you drastically improve the deisgn of?
What did you improve on it?
We typically build one-off prototypes, but for this task we got to do the whole "I wish i changed that part and optimized that thing"
I can't speak much about it yet, but at a very high level we made it less heavy and improved the power management /data system
this is so cool
Sweet
@de∫hipu robotic mobility research for us. this is probably JPL's first truely dynamic robot.
from the existence of fans I guess it's only good in Earth atmosphere
we like to build quazi-static robot which perform very calculated movements
I.e.- Robosimian
Do you see a quadruped robot as a viable platform for planetary exploration? As opposed to wheeled vehicles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u1o8HjwGcU
Wow
I love the design of robosimian, I think the Interstellar would be a much better movie if the robots there were like that
Oh man, yeah I agree
instead of those ridiculous black obelisk defying laws of mechanics
@Dan Maloney Yeah, one research path is asteroid/low-gravity body interactions where you have to be dynamic
Yeah i dont understand the interstellar robots
I understand how they didn't want to have humanoids (sorry for OT)
Learning from mission issues, are these designs moving in the direction of how to not get stuck? Maybe climbing potential?
YES!
Hi @arko can you please get me a ticket to Mars? kthx
Looking at the progression in rovers in the picture earlier. Next one should be SUV sized with 24" wheels
Only if you're a robot.
whoa samys here
Well, we typically define the robots requirements up front and design against that.
so if there's a 45 deg slop and we can only operate on 40deg max, we just dont do it
Do you work with exotic materials for the parts used in the prototypes?
Neat!
@samy kamkar lol, the best I can do is https://mars.nasa.gov/participate/send-your-name/mars2020/
I loved the lemur series, I wondered what happened to them
I was expecting a jumping robot. That thing looks intense.
@James Finch I personally haven't, but i know folks here who are always using these wackly materials. I feel like i learn about a new material every week
bonus points when the wacky material is available on Mcmaster
off the top of my head, i recall Mars Pathfinder using memory wire
shape-memory alloy that is
Last few minutes here for me before going back to work
:-) That would be awesome to experience. Wondering about electronics components also if there are proprietary materials the main stream consumer doesn't see much if at all. Any neat materials most don't see?
@arko, Thanks so much for taking time out of your schedule to do this, this was incredibly cool and I learned a lot, maybe we'll cross paths somewhere down the line again!
Nice, memory alloys.
Awesome talk arko and cool channel :)
I'll be around online again after 3:30 if you have more questions. As always, folks are welcome to DM or ask questions via email ara.kourchians@jpl.nasa.gov
Yeah, thanks arko!
really cool talk @arko thanks so much :)
:) thanks for having me! this was so much fun!
Thanks arko!
you all asked great questions :) my fingers hurt
I'm also on twitter @arkorobotics if you have questions and I'm not online here
Thank you @arko :-) Keep up the good work! :-)
Thank you very much @arko
cheers!
Hey Arko, you beat me to my wrap up! Thanks for hanging out with us today, we really appreciate it. Now that we're all jealous of your gig, I imagine they'll see some resumes coming in ;-)
You have new follower or Twitter @arko :-)
Haha! We are always looking for hackers and tinkerers
<3
Thanks everyone else too for coming along for the trip. And don't forget that next week we have an update from Parallax with Ken and Chip Gracey - https://hackaday.io/event/165855-parallax-update-hack-chat
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