Project·2026·Hackathon · ROS2 · Rapid Prototyping
Cosmic Collector
A cave-exploration robot built in 24 hours at the Robotech 2026 Hackathon. As one of the mechanical leads working with two CS majors, I designed a modular, parametric chassis system — and rebuilt it overnight after a 10-hour print failure.
Working alongside two computer science majors, I focused on the physical architecture of the bot: a parametric CAD approach that let a modular electronics and mechanism package attach to a variety of chassis designs, rather than betting everything on one rigid layout.
The real test came when our main chassis print failed a day into the competition, costing us 10 hours of print time. Instead of restarting the same design, we split the single-body chassis into several decomposable pieces so we could isolate failures and print across multiple printers simultaneously, then used pocketing to cut mass and shave two hours off the reprint — all without giving up structural integrity. We also designed a custom parametric adapter so the electronics plate could mount to any chassis configuration, not just ours, in case we had to pivot again.
With the mechanical and electrical work running in parallel on separate tracks, constant syncing with the CS team kept the component layout matched to their wiring and logic needs. The finished robot ran a mecanum drivetrain for holonomic motion in tight cave environments, a 360-degree LIDAR feeding a custom ROS2 navigation node, and a servo-driven "cone dropper" that left physical breadcrumbs for pathfinding.