First Demo of Closed-loop Control of the MR01 Mars Rover

The hardware for "Phase 0" (the preliminary test bed) of the MR01 Mars Rover is now mostly finished, and this is a first closed-loop control demo of the robot.
"Closed loop" means that each of the wheels has a Hall Effect quadrature encoder measuring its rotation, in this case 2774 ticks per rotation. This is used with a PID controller to support wheel odometry, very accurately measuring how far the wheel has traveled.
In this demo, the motor controllers (written in Python) also support both Slew and Jerk control, so there's a sense of momentum to its movement. This reduces stress on the motors' gearboxes as well as making the robot's movement smoother. The control knob on the side of the robot has zero at center-top, where rotating counter-clockwise injects a reverse velocity into its current velocity target; clockwise a forward velocity. Coupling closed-loop control with 52rpm motors means the robot can move very slowly, but still at full power (i.e., each motor will move at that rate regardless of going steeply uphill or downhill, or encountering an obstacle).
The next demo will begin to work with the steering servos on each wheel.

[@nishanthpatil4531]

How will it navigate uneven terrain?

[@NewZealandPersonalRobotics]

The MR01 is being built in stages, both to spread out the cost and also so everything doesn't have to be tackled at once.
Phase 0 (the current state) is a test bed to get the robot up and moving, as none of my previous robots had four wheel independent steering and motor control. The robot doesn't currently have any suspension system at all, the steering servos are mounted directly to the chassis. It is only expected to run indoors and on a wooden deck, maybe on a grassy field.
Phase 1 will add an aft rocker assembly, larger off-road wheels and motor arm mounts so that the steering axes will line up with the centerline of each wheel, and the robot will gain significant ground clearance. The front two steering assemblies will still be mounted directly to the chassis.
Phase 2 will add a port and starboard pair of rockers and steering/motor assemblies to make it a "proper" six wheel Mars rover with a triple-rocker suspension, similar to the triple-rocker suspension of the ExoMars rover, not the NASA/JPL rovers, which have a rocker-bogie suspension.

[@puntabachata]

How will it handle martian dust that gets into an sticks to everything?

[@guillermom1708]

read the title of the video again

[@NewZealandPersonalRobotics]

Every robot has a set of requirements and an expected working environment. Some are indoors only, some outdoors only on sunny days, some can handle inclement weather or even work underwater. Some are designed for other planets.
This is called a Mars rover because it's based on a Mars rover design , not because it's going to Mars. That may not be so obvious now, as this is early days, but eventually it will sport a rocker arm suspension and (perhaps) an additional pair of wheels.