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Capability ladder · step 02 · Robotics

Control theory,
with consequences.

Rover and manipulator platforms built to operate under spacecraft constraints — a finite power budget, an intermittent communications window, and no operator standing by to reset it. The constraints are the curriculum.
Entry point
Quoted
Audience
Technical institutes · engineering undergraduate
Capabilities
Differential-drive rover · Manipulator arm · Autonomy under comms windows · Energy budgeting

01What it teaches

Make it act on the world.

Space robotics is where control theory stops being a lecture. Rovers and manipulators built to operate under the same constraints a spacecraft has — a power budget, a comms window, and nobody coming to reset it.
  • 01Closed-loop control with real actuator limits
  • 02Energy budgeting for an autonomous traverse
  • 03Operating inside a communications window, not around it
  • 04Fault handling when there is no operator in the loop

02Specification

What is actually in it.

Rover platform

Drive
Differential, encoder feedback
Compute
Linux SBC with real-time control loop
Sensing
IMU, wheel odometry, ranging, camera
Power
Instrumented battery with logged consumption
Comms
Windowed link, schedulable to a real pass

What it integrates with

EduSat
Traverse planned around real satellite pass windows
Ground segment
Shared scheduling and telemetry decode
Curriculum
Same assessment standard as steps 01 and 03
Assessment
Instructor-graded lab report against a rubric

03Open · no account required

Tier 010 min

Reaction-wheel attitude control

The same PID loop a student tunes on the rover, moved onto a spacecraft. Tune it on the step response and it looks finished in under a minute. Then read the second chart, which runs the identical controller for a full orbit and shows the wheel filling with the momentum it absorbed while rejecting disturbance. A reaction wheel has nowhere to put that momentum, and when it is full the controller has no authority at all.


Every rung shares one curriculum spine and one assessment standard, so a department can start small and grow without re-teaching itself.

  1. Step 01RocketryGet something off the ground
  2. Step 02RoboticsMake it act on the world
  3. Step 03EduSatClose a real link
  4. Step 04SpaceportUnderstand why location is destiny

Next

Test the claims before you talk to us.

Three simulators run in the browser with no account and no form. They are the same computations that run inside the curriculum — if the arithmetic does not hold up, you will find out in ten minutes rather than after a purchase order.

Request institutional accessOpen the demo labBrowse the curriculum

Tier 0 is open · Tier 1 unlocks on a verified institutional email