Miron's Portfolio

1 · Vision

“Build it rugged, make it smart, test it hard — then send it where humans can’t go.”
— Orinium field notebook, January 2025

ARES (Autonomous Robotic Exploration System) started as a back-of-the-napkin idea for the TEKNOFEST Unmanned Ground Vehicle challenge. Three bullets set the tone:

Go where wheels fail (snow, rubble, soft soil).
Swap payloads in minutes, not hours.
Complete a SAR-style sortie on a single charge.

That sketch grew into a 480-part CAD assembly, FEA-checked for 40% slopes — enough to convince a sponsor to laser-cut our chassis plates and save three weeks of milling.

Quick specs (current state)

Subsystem	Spec
Propulsion	2 × 12 V brushed DC motors (≈240 W each)
Transmission	12:1 sealed steel gearbox
Tracks	PLA links + latex tread pads (field-swappable)
Compute	Jetson Orin Nano 8 GB (CUDA 12, TensorRT)
Autonomy	ORB-SLAM3 + RTK-GPS, Hybrid A* → BSpline MPC
Control	Cube Orange+ (CAN), ESP32 Safe-Stop (433 MHz backup)
Tested performance	0–9 km/h, 38% incline with 10 kg payload

2 · From steel sparks to rolling tracks

February smelled like burnt aluminum and coffee. Two laser batches (±0.1 mm) later we TIG-welded the skeleton; by early March the raw frame weighed 27 kg — exactly on target.

2.1 · Hand-made composite tracks

PLA links for stiffness and easy replacement.
Latex tread inserts bonded with TPU glue: +35% traction on wet concrete and +18% on loose gravel (bench tests).
Field-swappable in < 4 min per side with captive pins.

2.2 · Drivetrain spec (v1)

Item	Spec
Motors	2 × 12 V brushed DC
Gearbox	12 : 1 steel spur (sealed)
Tracks	PLA links + latex pads
Max grade	38% (tested)
Ground speed	0–9 km/h

3 · Brain & sensors (software meets dust)

ROS 2 Jazzy runs on Jetson Orin Nano 8 GB; high-level autonomy is built around:

ORB-SLAM3 fused with RTK-GPS for drift-resistant pose.
Hybrid A* global planner → BSpline MPC tracker for smooth control.
YOLO v8-nano at ~30 FPS for obstacle semantics.

Cube Orange+ handles low-level control over CAN, while an ESP32 Safe-Stop rides a redundant 433 MHz link for e-stop and heartbeat.

4 · Obstacle-course mission (per TEKNOFEST rules)

Course mock-up: right-angle turn & water trench

The course must be completed autonomously, including:

Right-angle corridor (≈1 m width)
Debris hill / step obstacle
40 cm water trench crossing
Slalom poles → finish gate

Simulation passes are green; full outdoor validation starts mid-August with the same layouts.

5 · Field trials & reliability notes

100 km cumulative mileage (asphalt/gravel mix).
38% slope climb with 10 kg dummy payload.
MIL-STD-810H-style vibration profile passed after adding heatsinks to ODESC drivers (67 °C → 54 °C).

6 · The crew behind the steel

Eighteen students, three faculties, one deadline.
Elec — power distro & safe-stop.
Mech — frame, suspension, dust seals.
Soft — ~18 k LOC C++/Python (plus one frantic night porting to Jazzy).

7 · Numbers that matter

Metric	Current	Final goal
Endurance	52 min	60 min
RTK-SLAM RMSE	0.13 m	≤ 0.10 m
IP rating	IP 54	IP 65
Mass (RTR)	46 kg	≤ 48 kg

8 · What’s next?

Quick-swap 5 kg manipulator on the top rail.
Replace FPV with dual-band Wi-Fi 6E MIMO video.
Cold-start heater validation at −20 °C.

TL;DR ARES topped the TEKNOFEST design review (87/100) and heads to the September finals. The PLA-plus-latex tracks bite, the brushed 12 V powertrain pulls, and the autonomy stack is ready to tackle the right-angle, debris, and 40 cm water sections — hands-off.

ARES — Autonomous Tracked Ground Vehicle