Lego Technic Mars Rover

This is a model I designed and built from scratch (no instructions) during my evenings and weekends for about 5 months. The rover weighs just short of 3kg, has 11 motors, over 4 meters of pneumatic hose. It's controlled with two remote controls. Getting all those features with limited parts and tight space constraints was a huge challenge!

Main Functions:

• 4W Drive, Steering
• Switch between crab and 4-wheel steering
• "Solar Panel" unfold/fold
• Crane up/down, left/right, extension/retraction, "pincer"
• Cargo bay door open/close
• Pneumatic airlock
• Fully RC

Other small stuff:

• Rotating satelite dish
• Detailed cabin
• Independent suspension on all wheels
• Two servos each control two pneumatic functions

I used a few clever tricks to give motors more than one function. For example, each pneumatic pump is also a switch, depending on the direction it spins, using a design I borrowed from youtube. Each servo motor controls two switches each, because by design it was possible to make functions opposites of each other. The pneumatics engage in order of easiest to most difficult, so there are some rubber bands to set the order of activation. E.g. the up/down motion of the crane is paired with the storage lid.

Front

Details inside the cabin

Schematic

Inspiration

The idea and inspiration came from Eurobricks mars mission contest (ZeroBricks, Samolot, Kubic5), Simon stallenhag's artwork, and image searches for mars rover concept art