May 11, 1998

HELIOS Team Takes Top Prize at Competition

Left to right, front row: Rob Bledsoe and Amanda England of the HELIOS team; Dean Masnari; Jason Janet, HELIOS adviser; Dr. Abdel Bayoumi, mechanical and aerospace engineering; back row: Dr. Bill Allen, electrical and computer engineering; and Bryan Laffitte, industrial design.

A team of engineering and design students and faculty from NC State University took first place in the Space '98 Robotics Competition held in Albuquerque, NM, April 26-30. NC State's Habitat Exploration Leaders in Outer Space (HELIOS) team designed and built working prototypes of a robot, lunar lander and habitat module for the event.

Sponsored by NASA and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the national competition is part of the Space Education Initiative. Ideas generated by the competing teams will be reviewed by NASA personnel and members of the aerospace industry in an effort to meet NASA's goal of making the moon habitable by the year 2010.

Ten HELIOS team members attended the April competition, including Amanda England, Rob Bledsoe, Johnnie Jones, Dwayne Lancaster, Chris Roseman, Scott Pratt, Taylor Arnold, Sara Washburn, John Colthar and Terri Buchanan. Jason Janet, an adviser for the team, also attended the competition.

The HELIOS team has been working on the project since 1996. Over 60 students and faculty members from electrical and computer engineering, mechanical and aerospace engineering, civil engineering and the School of Design have been involved in the project. Faculty advisers for the project are Dr. Bill Allen, electrical and computer engineering; Dr. Abdel Bayoumi, mechanical and aerospace engineering; Janet, electrical and computer engineering; Bryan Laffitte, industrial design; Dr. Philip Lambe, civil engineering; Dr. Gordon Lee, mechanical and aerospace engineering and James Tomlinson, design.

The competition is designed to challenge students in traditionally non-space-related engineering disciplines to apply their skills toward the solution of space-based problems. NASA provided a set of specifications, and each team presented design proposals and demonstrated proof-of-concept using 1/12th scale prototypes of everything needed to build a home on the moon for researchers and space travelers.

At the center of the HELIOS team's project is a remote-controlled robot named Thumper. About the size of a small dog, Thumper is a working prototype robot that can do all of the assembly and excavation of a lunar habitat before any humans return to the moon. The robot has variable speed control and can work completely untethered. In addition, Thumper sports an on-board video camera with a radio-frequency video link, an extendible boom with a dual-purpose bucket that can both transport the habitat and excavate soil, and a six-wheel positive-traction drive system for better maneuverability.

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