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from the robots-bouncing-just-like-checks dept.
Researchers at UCB and NASA have developed prototypes of robots that can survive a crashdown at 30mph and then operate by deforming to make the robot roll. ComputerWorld reports includes a video of the robots moving.
These tensegrity (or floating compression) structures are not that new and Buckminster Fuller drew on them in creating some of his architecture. But there has been a lot of research recently on algorithms to find and model these structures, making the design of robots with particular charactistics a lot simpler.
From the ComputerWorld article:
"We've decided that these structures are so strong that they can actually withstand the landing at 30 miles an hour without any additional support," said Adrian Agogino, a scientist working at NASA Ames research center. "So no additional airbags, no additional landing support. This entire thing could actually land on Titan and then, as an active structure, could roll around like a rover." Researchers have thought about using such so-called tensegrity structures for some time, but have lacked complex computer algorithms that can model how they work, but that's now available and the results are encouraging, said Agogino.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by threedigits on Friday April 17 2015, @08:05AM
The purpose of a robot in a mission is not to survive the impact, but to be able to *do* something after that.
This kind of structure may be very resilient, but the load capacity is *extremely* low, so highly unpractical for a typical rover mission. That doesn't mean it doesn't have uses, but I don't expect replacing rovers is one of them.