Miniature robots for space and military missions

Abstract

ABSTUCT Miniature robots enable low-cost planetary surface exploration missions, and new military missions in urban terrain where small robots provide critical assistance to human operations. These space and military missions have many similar technological challenges. Robots can be deployed in environments where it may not be safe or affordable to send humans, or where robots can reduce the risk to humans. Small size is needed in urban terrain to make the robot easy to carry and deploy by military personnel. Technology to sense and perceive the environment, and to autonomously plan and execute navigation maneuvers and other remote tasks, is an important requirement for both planetary and surface robots and for urban terrain robotic assistants. Motivated by common technological needs and by a shared vision about the great technological potential, a strong, collaborative relationship exists between the NASNJPL and DARPA technology development in miniaturized robotics. This paper describes the technologies under development, the applications where these technologies are relevant to both space and military missions, and the status of the most recent technology demonstrations in terrestrial scenarios.

Kinematics analysis for obstacle-climbing performance of a rescue robot

“…a l is the distance between driver wheel axle and the rear road wheel axle. 1 r , 2 r , 3 r are radius of the front road wheels, the rear road wheels and the idle wheels. B is the width of the robot.…”

“…Since the rescue sites and rescue activities are complex, this kind of robots should have many abilities, such as running on the grass, ditch, sands and stairs quickly. More and more researchers take interest in tracked mobile robot which can move in unstructured environment quickly [1].…”

A novel model-based method for odometry calculation of all-terrain mobile robots

“…Wheeled mobile robots have found more and more applications for outdoor environments such as space exploration robots [1,2] and military unmanned mobility platforms [3]. To be distinguished from ordinary wheeled mobile robots, rough terrain mobile or all-terrain mobile robots here are described as those that move on uneven or soft sandy terrain in an unstructured environment, especially like planet surface or natural terrain.…”

Kinematics-based velocity estimation of lunar rovers

“…Wheeled mobile robots are increasingly used in unknown and dangerous situations such as planetary exploration [1][2], military fields [3] and other outdoor mobility applications [4][5][6]. For lunar rovers performing scientific exploration and sample return missions on lunar surface, they are supposed to be able to travel autonomously for a long distance across different terrains, even on soft terrains.…”