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NASA Fashions Mountain-Climbing Robot

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the release-the-robo-shirpa dept.

coondoggie writes "NASA researchers today said they had built and tested a robot that can rappel off cliffs, travel over steep and rocky terrain, and explore deep craters. The prototype rover, called Axel, might help future robotic spacecraft better explore and investigate foreign worlds such as Mars. On Earth, Axel might assist in search-and-rescue operations in locations where people might not be able to reach. Axel can operate upside down and right side up and uses only three motors: one to control each of its two wheels and a third to control a lever. The lever contains a scoop to gather lunar or planetary material for scientists to study, and it also adjusts the robot's two stereo cameras, which can tilt 360 degrees, NASA said."

3 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. Power Source? by JamJam · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So what kind of power source is this robot likely to use? NASA's fav solar power isn't really well suited for climbing mountains. So are we going to have a bunch of nuclear powered mountain climbing robots wandering about? If you ask me maybe our best test bed would be Mars.

    1. Re:Power Source? by gnick · · Score: 2, Interesting

      TFA speculates that it "would make a natural combination with the Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR)". (Although I think that was just a tie-in for the author to insert some copy-pasta, as combining the two robots seems like a pretty dumb idea to me... EATR is a radically different design and not nearly as mobile.)

      Still, it could make for some awkward situations if this thing is indeed used for search and rescue - better not give it AI. "Well, I found her, but my battery's low. I think that only one of us is making it out of here alive... *Munch munch munch*"

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
  2. Re:Couple Makes Ultra Mobile, Ultra Agile Explorer by AMuse · · Score: 2, Interesting

    To follow up on my own comment (doh!) here is a link to a document detailing recommendations to the obama administration for NASA..

    Right on schedule, a radical restructuring recommendation.

    I'm not commenting on the merits of this particular publication (could be great!!) but it certainly drives home the point I was making. It's hard to make progress on a 20 year program when your agency is radically "restructured" every 4 or 8 years.