Chavín Rover
Mechatronic Design | Robotics for Archaeology
A remotely controlled rover to explore small underground tunnels in a 3000 year old temple complex in the Peruvian Andes.
Mechanical.
| 4-wheel drive
| Servo camera control
Electrical.
| Raspberry Pi Zero
| Arduino Leonardo
| Front and rear cameras
| Laser rangefinder
| LED array
| Arduino joystick
| Ethernet tether
Timeline.
| 2 months prep (while in school full time)
| 8 weeks on site
Context.
Daniel Chan and I designed this robot from scratch after receiving a grant from the Stanford School of Engineering in 2018. We partnered with John Rick, Stanford faculty in Archaeology, to use robotics to explore small tunnels in an ancient temple complex in Chavín de Huantar, a UNESCO world heritage site. On a budget of $1500, we designed and then 3D printed, laser cut, and purchased parts for the robot over a span of two months while attending school full time. We traveled to rural Peru, and – with extremely limited access to tools and internet – prototyped, iterated, and deployed the robot.
Design.
The Chavín temple complex includes underground tunnels as small as 20cm across and more than 70m long. While in Chavín, we continued to iterate on our robot design, adding servo controlled cameras and light arrays while shrinking the wheelbase. Ultimately the robot presented a profile of 20cm wide by 15cm tall, had a range of 100m, and was controlled remotely using a Raspberry Pi.
Outcome.
Our project contributed to general site knowledge of the underground tunnel system and provided an exciting topic for Peruvian and international media. Our most exciting success, however, consisted of finding a 3000-year-old, unbroken ceramic bottle (see photos below).
Stanford School of Engineering video highlighting our work in Chavín.
Building the first version of the robot shortly after arriving in Peru.
We had access only to tools that we brought ourselves. Fabrication required creativity, repeated trips to tiny hardware stores, and hot glue.
Daniel Chan testing the first rover build.
Testing and building the robot in the Chavín archaeology lab.
Wiring the motors to the motor controller.
Whiteboard layout of our robot's architecture and wiring.
Daniel and I with v1 of the robot.
Testing v1 of the robot in relatively spacious underground tunnels.
Explaining features of the robot to local archaeologists.
Field fabrication using epoxy.
v2 of the robot with larger wheels and a headlamp. Note the broad wheelbase.
v3 of the robot, note the narrow wheelbase.
v4 of the robot.
Closeup of v4 with servo mounted distance sensor and camera visible.
At the start of an unexplored tunnel.
Watching our robot disappear down a ~50m tunnel.
Controlling the robot in the field.
A narrow tunnel representing the real value of our work. Human exploration of these tunnels can be dangerous or impossible.
Daniel and I on the site with our robot.
Glamour shot of the Chavín rover in the temple complex.
Using the robot, we discovered a 3000-year-old unbroken ceramic bottle in a narrow tunnel.
Me sharing the ceramic bottle with the archaeology team.
Daniel was able to retrieve the bottle from the tunnel. It was one of the most exciting discoveries of the summer.
The 3000-year old, unbroken ceramic bottle from the Chavín culture before cleaning.
The bottle was likely a sacrificial artifact used by the Chavín in religious ceremony.