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Stanford Team Developing Spiked Robots To Explore Phobos
cylonlover writes "Robot hedgehogs on the moons of Mars may sound like the title of a B-grade sci-fi movie, but that is what Stanford University is working on. Marco Pavone, an assistant professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and his team are developing spherical robots called 'hedgehogs' that are about half a meter (1.6 ft) wide and covered in spikes to better cope with rolling and hopping across the surface of the Martian moon Phobos with its very low gravity."
Having this headline show up as a red banner was actually kind of alarming. It made me want to be sure where these spiked robots were headed.
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a difficult battle. - Plato
They're obviously stealing the idea from video games, as a metal robotic hedgehog already exists. Mecha Sonic ring a bell? Oh and for the record, he was on a space station in the game.
I for one welcome our Martian robot hedgehog overlords.
Tubby or not tubby. Fat is the question
Can I use the sonic controls? Because you may have a number of 20 something year-old people who are going to be pre-trained to steer that.
all blasting out early judas priest for all of the heavens soothing enjoyment
How does reducing the actual surface area in contact with the ground help it stay on a moon with low gravity? Or are the "spikes" expected to sink into the "dust" or something? What happens when this thing drives over a rock?
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Should fit in well with the Leather Godesses.
Corporate sponsorship is by Union Aerospace Corporation, what could possibly go wrong....
If you must keep groaning, please try to do it in a rhythm I can dance to
spherical robots... that are about half a meter (1.6 ft) wide and covered in spikes
The Tall Man approves!
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Given that Phobos is most likely a captured body, this does not seem like a good return on the investment.
Instead of our shipment of spiky ball robots, we got these useless crates of chainsaws... What the hell do we need chainsaws on mars for?!
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So we can't make a levitating version so we go big and spiky?
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
"Stanford Team Developing Spiked Robots To Explore Robots"
My initial reaction was "Poor robots :("
So how do they spike a robot? Do they add some meth to the hydrazine? Thank you, I'll be here all week...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
You spelled "Hobos" wrong.
Bow before me, for I am root.
The design looks a lot like something out of the account of a credible individual in the UK who has suffered from an Alien Abduction experience. He describes spheres with much fewer feet than the NASA version, and how they pivoted and rolled to make a path of animal-like foot prints.
Source; the following remarkable series:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke's_Mysterious_World#U.F.O.s_-_4_November_1980
All rites reversed 2010
The real questions are: are they blue? and, can they go fast?
Robert Heinlein's ideas are once again prophetic. In the book Red Planet the adventuresome protagonist has a pet/friend Martian named Willis who is a spherical native animal that mostly moves by rolling and bouncing along. The "bouncer" creatures also extended appendages for movement or sensing things (spikes?).
Must we convert 0.5 meters to feet for the reader here?
Were there not spherical robots on that series?