MIMAS

Origins

Mimas was conceived as Giorgio Clivio’s and Akshit Sachdeva's Honours Project at Edinburgh Napier University. While the core platform and suspension were developed by Giorgio, the rover became a testbed for integrating complex subsystems from other engineers. Akshit Sachdeva played a crucial role in the design and implementation of the robotic manipulator. What began as a bold objective to replicate NASA’s Mars rovers transformed into a comprehensive platform where CAD, kinematics, materials engineering, and collaborative software control converge in a single system.

Suspension & Mobility

The core of Mimas is the Rocker-Bogie suspension, the same passive mobility system used on real Mars Rovers. Every wheel maintains contact with uneven ground without the use of springs or dampers, ensuring high stability and the ability to traverse obstacles as tall as the wheel radius. Developing this system required: stress-driven redesign of joints and load paths, optimisation of wheel geometry and material selection, multiple iterations of 3D-printed components, and balancing weight reduction with structural strength. What began as a theoretical kinematic model quickly became an iterative mechanical engineering effort driven by repeated test–break–redesign cycles.

Remote Sensing & Autonomy

Mimas integrates environmental awareness with intelligent decision-making. The rover's head, the Remote Sensing Mast (RSM), features dual stereovision NavCams and a MastCam to map the terrain and document the environment. These visual inputs feed directly into the rover's autonomy stack, governed by a custom finite state machine called 'QuectoFSM'. This algorithm allows Mimas to assess terrain roughness, detect obstacles, and calculate ground clearance, autonomously determining safe travel paths.

Robotic Arm

To perform sampling, Mimas is equipped with a semi-autonomous, 5-DOF robotic manipulator. Built for the spatial constraints of a rover, the arm features a hybrid actuation system: high-torque stepper motors with custom planetary gearboxes drive the shoulder joints, while compact servos handle the elbow and wrist. The structure utilizes aluminum links and 3D-printed plastic housings to balance strength and weight. Operating via a closed-loop control system with Inverse Kinematics (IK), the arm uses onboard cameras and sensors to execute precise positioning for drilling and sample collection.

Technical Deep Dive

Explore the engineering details and the additional content Mimas.

Technical Blog