HunterWOLF Mudflap Design
The Hunter WOLF unmanned ground vehicle. Public-release photo, HDT Robotics.
The problem
We received feedback from soldiers doing field testing with the HunterWOLF that there was an issue of debris ingress when reversing the vehicle. A fix was needed that would work on vehicles already in production, which meant designing around an existing structure rather than an ideal packaging envelope.
Design and prototyping
Concepts started in SolidWorks and went through several iterations. To test them against the actual vehicle, I ordered neoprene stock and hand-cut prototypes to mount and run. What those showed drove the final design.
Fabrication and installation
Fabrication went out to local machine shops, which meant sourcing vendors, managing the handoff, and following the parts through to installation. Progress went to the chief engineer in a weekly report.
Result
Parts were fabricated and installed on all 11 production vehicles.
Other work at HDT
- Created 8 detail drawings with GD&T and released them with STEP files to suppliers for manufacture
- Supported the test engineer across 9 vehicle agility tests, installing instrumentation, prepping the vehicle between runs, and flagging anomalies during testing