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Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
We have a lot of respect for the hackers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). When their stuff has a problem, it is often millions of miles away and yet they often find a way to fix it anyway. Case in point is the Curiosity Mars rover. Back in 2016, the probe's rock drill broke. This is critical because one of the main things the rover does is drill into rock samples, collect the powder and subject it to analysis. JPL announced they had devised a way to successfully drill again.
The drill failed after fifteen uses. It uses two stabilizers to steady itself against the target rock. A failed motor prevents the drill bit from retracting and extending between the stabilizers. Of course, sending a repair tech 60 million miles is not in the budget, so they had to find another way. You can see a video about the way they found, below.
Source: https://hackaday.com/2018/05/25/nasa-remotely-hacks-curiositys-rock-drill/
(Score: 5, Informative) by requerdanos on Sunday May 27 2018, @06:13PM (4 children)
FTFS:
I project that there may be one or two people who see TFS and say "Well, I don't especially want to watch a video, which is why I am here and not on VideoTube right now". Most people will, of course, watch the video in its full glory, and I encourage the first person who does that to tell us all about it.
In the interest of serving that limited segment of the public who may eschew videos in the immediate future, I quote below the part from TFA [hackaday.com] wherein they describe the hack.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday May 27 2018, @06:28PM (1 child)
I am an employee of Boston Dynamics, so I know a thing or two about robots, especially gay Jewish ones. The phrase "made to detect if the arm strikes something" is misleading. In robotics all sensors are polled constantly and it's the interrupt handling which "detects" events such as the arm striking something. In cases of extreme force, sometimes the limb's motion control components are de-energized and the limb goes limp (well, depending on the weight of the limb and the holding torque of the servos) as an effort to prevent damage to itself or to nearby humans.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 27 2018, @07:26PM
Thank you captain obvious. Before you stepped in to enlighten us we were all fooled and thought NASA remotely modified the electric properties of the sensor by moving atoms using magic rays and duct tape. But thanks to you, we now know they rewrote a routine.
Keep your sex life to yourself. And tell your little Jewish robo-boyfriend they can do better.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 27 2018, @07:53PM (1 child)
So it's a mechanical penis.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 27 2018, @07:56PM
Otherwise known as a vibrator and preferable to a man in every way.