Robotic Mine Vehicles Successfully Reanimated By UA Engineering Students Using İndustry Support

In just 10 weeks, a group of University of Arizona engineering students took five crates of surplus hardware and two heavy-duty test vehicles, which didn't run, and mixed them with youthful enthusiasm, tenacity and many long hours to build two robotic vehicles that successfully drove themselves around UA's test mine. It was no easy task, and predicted by some as too big a project for a one semester course: ENGR 450/550, autonomous vehicle systems. But the naysayers didn't factor in the can-do attitude of 23 undergraduate and graduate students who were willing to put in late nights following regular classes and daytime jobs.

The autonomous vehicles, which replace human drivers with computer control, satellite navigation and robotic vision, were originally part of a research program at Freeport-McMoRan in Safford, Ariz.

"Their mine technology group has been pursuing autonomous vehicle programs, and they asked if we could use some of the equipment they finished testing in 2008," said Mary Poulton, director of the Lowell Institute for Mineral Resources, which worked with Freeport-McMoRan to set up the equipment donation to UA. IMR is collaborating with the Science Foundation of Arizona, the mining industry and Arizona's universities to build a global center of mining excellence.

Tucson Embedded Systems stepped in and offered space to house the equipment and a place for students to work. Then it was simply a matter of loading five crates of hardware and two 7,500-pound vehicles onto a semi and transporting them to Tucson.

"The vehicles had been sitting for two years, and didn't start or run," said Sean Martinez, a systems engineering master's student and teaching assistant for the autonomous vehicle systems course. "The communications equipment was inoperable. None of the control software was correct for what we were doing. The hardware was all there, but nothing worked." And some important things were missing, such as a complete wiring diagram for the vehicles.

To sort this out, the course combined students from electrical and computer engineering, systems and industrial engineering, and aerospace and mechanical engineering -- teaming students in training to do everything from auto mechanics to software engineering to control systems fabrication.