Biorobotics: Innovative and low cost technologies for next generation planetary rovers

Smith, B.G.R.; Scott, Gregory; Saaj, Chakravarthini M.

doi:10.1109/rast.2009.5158288

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 10 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…To enable access to a broader range of terrain, besides flying [42] and underwater [43,44] robots, many nonwheeled ground robot platforms have been developed, most of which specializes in a single mode of locomotion [45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59] (for a review, see Thoesen and Marvi [7] ). These primarily include: tracked, [52] multilegged, [48,49,54,56] humanoid biped, [53,57] screw-propelled, [55,58] snake-like, [55] tensegrity-based robots, [59] scaling, [50] jumping, [45,47] and rappelling [1,6,46,51] robots. A recent conference Figure 3.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Need for and Feasibility of Alternative Ground Robots to Traverse Sandy and Rocky Extraterrestrial Terrain

Lewis

2022

Advanced Intelligent Systems

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Robotic spacecraft have vastly increased our ability to explore extraterrestrial surfaces. [1][2][3][4][5][6] Mobile robots have enabled exploration beyond a static landing site and allowed discovery-driven investigations on both the Moon and Mars. They have helped us understand the geologic history and surface environments of both bodies, conducting scientific campaigns analogous in many ways to that of a terrestrial field geologist.Since the first deployments on the Moon nearly half a century ago, mobile planetary exploration robots have progressively increased in their capabilities and enabled us to access a range of scientific targets on extraterrestrial surfaces. [2][3][4][5] To date, all of the successfully landed lunar and Martian mobile exploration robots, as well as the majority of those being developed, have adopted a conventional wheeled rover platform with a variety of architectures. [5,7] This is not surprising because one of the highest priority considerations for space applications is to maximize mechanical reliability, where wheeled platforms have excelled. [2,3,7,8] These missions have been hugely successful, often exceeding mission design lifetime and traverse distance. The 6-wheel Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity currently holds the planetary rover distance record, driving over 45 km across Meridiani Planum. [9] Similarly, the Soviet Union's 8-wheel Lunokhod 2 rover traversed 39 km across the surface of the Moon in 1973. [10] The recent 6-wheel Chinese Yutu and Yutu-2 lunar rovers have travelled hundreds of meters on the surface of the Moon. [11] Although these rovers have had an impressive track record exploring both the Moon and Mars, their missions have revealed significant limitations faced by wheel-based mobility systems, which hinder scientific exploration. For example, the Spirit Mars Exploration Rover ultimately reached the end of its mission due to a low power state after becoming embedded in a patch of loose soil at a location known as "Troy." The ferric sulfate dominated soil at this site had very low cohesion, thus being mechanically weak, and extended to a depth comparable to the wheel radius. [12] Unfortunately, this deposit was hidden beneath a weakly indurated soil crust, rendering the hazard hidden until the rover was already embedded. [9] The challenge of extricating Spirit was made more difficult due to the failure of one of its six wheels earlier in the mission, requiring modified driving strategies. [12] The Opportunity rover had similar challenges navigating ubiquitous large aeolian ripples in Meridiani Planum. In particular, it was stuck for an extended time embedded in the loose sand of the "Purgatory" ripple [13] (Figure 1A).More recently, the Curiosity Mars rover has incurred significant wheel damage along its traverse due to angular rocks protruding from the surface, which punctured the thin aluminum

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Need for and Feasibility of Alternative Ground Robots to Traverse Sandy and Rocky Extraterrestrial Terrain

Lewis

2022

Advanced Intelligent Systems

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Many hopping robots utilize a low center of mass [8] and a chassis design utilizing a specially configured steel wire [9], egg shape [10], or a ³WULPPHG VSKHUH´ ERG\ [11] to passively self-right. Others use active strategies, such as extending specialized flaps [12]; pushing with an arm, leg, or tail [13]; or reconfiguring the body [14]. RHex even utilizes a hybrid pumping strategy for dynamic self-righting [15].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A framework for autonomous self-righting of a generic robot on sloped planar surfaces

Kessens

Smith

Osteen³

2012

2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract²Increasingly, robots are being applied to challenges in dynamic, unstructured environments including urban search and rescue (USAR), planetary exploration, and military missions. During the execution of these missions, the robot may unintentionally tip over, rendering it unable to move normally. The ability to self-right and recover in such situations is crucial to mission completion and safe robot recovery. However, to date, nearly all self-righting solutions have been point solutions, each designed for a specific platform. As a first step toward a generic solution, this paper presents a framework for analyzing the self-righting capabilities of any generic robot on sloped planar surfaces. Based on the planar assumption, interactions with the ground can be defined HQWLUHO\ LQ WHUPV RI WKH URERW ¶V FRQYH[ KXOO 0RWLRQ RI DUPV legs, or other appendages may change the convex hull shape DQGRUFHQWHURIPDVVSRVLWLRQDIIHFWLQJWKHURERW ¶VRULHQWDWLRQOur framework for solving this problem can be summarized as follows: first, for each stable conformation, we analyze the position of the center of mass relative to the vertical projection of the convex hull face in contact with the ground. From this, we develop a conformation space map, defining stable state sets as nodes and the conformations where discontinuous state changes occur as transitions. Finally, we convert this map into a directed graph, and assign costs to the transitions according to changes in potential energy between states. Based upon the ability to traverse this directed graph to the goal state, one can analyze a robot ¶VDELOLW\WRVHOI-right. To illustrate each step in our framework, we use a simple two-dimensional robot with a one degree of freedom arm, and then show a case study of L5RERW ¶V 510 Packbot®. Ultimately, we project that this framework will be useful both for designing robots with the ability to self-right and for planning joint movements to achieve efficient, autonomous self-righting behaviors.

show abstract

A metric for self-rightability and understanding its relationship to simple morphologies

Kessens

Lennon

Collins

2014

2014 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Biorobotics: Innovative and low cost technologies for next generation planetary rovers

Cited by 4 publications

References 10 publications

The Need for and Feasibility of Alternative Ground Robots to Traverse Sandy and Rocky Extraterrestrial Terrain

The Need for and Feasibility of Alternative Ground Robots to Traverse Sandy and Rocky Extraterrestrial Terrain

A framework for autonomous self-righting of a generic robot on sloped planar surfaces

A metric for self-rightability and understanding its relationship to simple morphologies

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About