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Swarming And Hopping Planetary Robots

Posted by Zonk on from the game-over-man-game-over dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Recently Dr. Penelope Boston (U. New Mexico) and Dr. Steven Dubowsky (MIT) discussed their NASA advances to develop 'hopping microbots' capable of exploring hazardous terrain, including underground caves and planetary extremes. 'We came up with the idea of many, many, tiny little spheres, about the size of tennis balls (slide show), that essentially hop, almost like Mexican jumping beans. They store up muscle energy, so to speak, and then they boink themselves off in various directions. That's how they move...They behave as a swarm [of 1000s]. They relate to each other using very simple rules, but that produces a great deal of flexibility in their collective behavior that enables them to meet the demands of unpredictable and hazardous terrain.' Test prototypes available in March will initially explore terrestrial lava tubes."

4 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. What would Heisenberg think? by nickgrieve · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I like this idea. Personally, I think that remote planetary rover designers often put the cart before the horse. We often send the robotic equivalent of (evolutionary speaking) contemporary insects out to explore planets, when perhaps we should look at methods employed by fungus, plants, one celled organisms for inspection for somewhat to more so reliable designs...

    As for Heisenburg,... I can see a lot of NASA guys sitting around the data feeds... "hrmm... it seems that the surface of venus is covered in 1000's of pock marks the size of tennis balls..." :-)

  2. balls roll down by tronicum · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I like the idea but if it just a swarm of balls, they might inspect a cave one time only. If like 1000 Balls hop arround and 200 explore a cave, they might all roll down into a big hole all together. They need some rover or insect like master that collects their sensor information. If they are the size of a tennis ball they can't store much energy and can not send their data for long distance.

    1. Re:balls roll down by David_Shultz · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Something leads me to believe that, seeing as though the researchers are considering sending these to investigate lava tubes, they will be considering a means by which the robots will be able to get out of the tubes...

      Having said that, I agree completely that there will certainly be the possibility of the robots getting stuck or damaged by different terrain or obstacles. However, this is something swarms are good at dealing with!

      First of all, having one bot getting stuck or damaged isn't catastrophic -the system continues functioning, just with slightly lower efficiency. Secondly, if a bot gets stuck, it could send out a danger signal to nearby bots. As a matter of fact, such a system is probably not even necessary,because chances are, the swarms will be designed with the following rule: steer clear of nearby bots. Why? To cover a wider area. (staying within sensor range of at least a few bots though). So by default, if one bot gets into a tough situation, the others avoid it. Of course, there will probably be a grouping rule as well -steer to maintain the same heading as the average of the group. We want these guys staying together and functioning as a whole unit.

      In any case, the point is this -swarms are BETTER at dealing with tough conditions than individual bots. Secondly, having a master bot defeats almost all purposes of having a swarm in the first place. It would be better to just design the swarm in such a way that they are able to gather themselves up at a meeting point when the time comes.

    2. Re:balls roll down by Peter+La+Casse · · Score: 2, Insightful
      In any case, the point is this -swarms are BETTER at dealing with tough conditions than individual bots. Secondly, having a master bot defeats almost all purposes of having a swarm in the first place. It would be better to just design the swarm in such a way that they are able to gather themselves up at a meeting point when the time comes.

      While this is true, the best approach is likely to be one that combines the swarming and master bot approaches. During normal operations, individual bots maneuver independently, but when the situation warrants, the swarm coalesces into a master bot that can meet greater challenges.

      And I'll form the head!