Info Gauntlet | Make Sense Out of Mars
The Challenge | Make Sense Out of Mars
Info Gauntlet
The Info Gauntlet is a lightweight, compact, and efficient sensory device designed for future explorers and residents of Mars. The gauntlet makes full use of Arduino technology, striking a creative balance between mechanical design and digital precision.
At its core, the Info Gauntlet serves to increase the user's ability to understand Mars.
Using a number of sensors attached to a carefully programmed microprocessor, the Info Gauntlet is capable of measuring several different values in real time, which include temperature, humidity, altitude, atmospheric pressure, concentration of atmospheric particles, soil moisture, and UV radiation. The advanced micro-processing capabilities of the Arduino Uno board allow the Info Gauntlet to process information from several sensors requiring minimal space and electrical supply. Furthermore, the code programmed within the device allows complex data to be converted and shown to the reader as simple and digestible units values upon an LED screen placed upon the wrist. The wide variety of information measurable by the Info Gauntlet in real time, along with its simple control scheme and presentation, makes us confident in the Info Gauntlet’s utility to the future explorers and inhabitants of the Red Planet. Furthermore, our team has re-purposed salvaged military reconnaissance equipment, a thermal vision camera and helmet, into a warning heads-up-display for the user. This helps us inform the user of dangerous conditions on Mars and also makes full use of the resources provided to us
The compact size of the Arduino technology made managing wiring and power supply difficult. Furthermore, the implementation of more conventional and dated technology found in the helmet made wiring and synchony between systems even more difficult. However, our technical experience and careful planning helped us overcome these flaws.
The highly customization nature of the Arduino Uno board and flexibility of the Arduino code makes the Info Gauntlet a highly adjustable system with many opportunities for improvement by programmers and engineers around the world
Materials Used:
1) Arduino Uno board
2) Salvaged Thermal Vision Helmet (found in scrapyard)
3) Sensors:
a) DHT22
b) BMP280
c) GP2Y1010AU0F
d) YL-69
e) UVM-30B
SpaceApps is a NASA incubator innovation program.