Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Path: brunix!uunet!casey!gaboon!a3bee2!n1gva!fcf
From: fcf@n1gva (F. C. Floberg)
Subject: Re: How to Explore Mars
Message-ID: <1993Jan10.131539.21053@n1gva>
Organization: Evil Weather Machines LTD
References: <HAGERMAN.93Jan7224103@rx7.ece.cmu.edu>
Distribution: comp
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 93 13:15:39 GMT
Lines: 46

hagerman@ece.cmu.edu (John Hagerman) writes:
: So, my subject line got you to read at least this far :-]
: 
: There has been some discussion about the tradeoffs between using one
: large robot and many small robots for planetary exploration.  Has the
: Erebus experiment changed the opinion of anyone here?
: I'm hoping for
: new thoughts engendered by considering the experiment in general.

I've heard at least one argument for small robots in planetary explor-
ation, i.e. their small size making them easier to transport to the
planets surface, the 'redundant systems' effect of numerous small
machines, and the ability to cover more ground in a given time span.

The argument for large robots is that they can be more sophisticated,
and can traverse more difficult terrain than their smaller counterparts.

I wonder about 'blending' the two philosiphies... Imagine that you had
one large, agile, and reasonably intelligent robot, and say, six or so
smaller less sophisticated ones all linked together via some sort of
network (on a radio link maybe?). The smaller robots could act as remote
sencory input devices, or data collection drones, that are directed by
the larger one. The larger one ("Mother") would collect the data per-
ceived by the drones periodically, and transmit what was relivant back
to Earth. When a drone encountered an obstacle (such as a cavern), it
would inform the mother of the problem, and the mother would decide
whether to 'stay the cource' or not. If so, she would collect up her
drones (as a marsupial would) and attempt to negotiate the obstacle
herself. After the obsticle had been navigated, she would release
her drones to continue their work.

			. . . .

Of course, this is only a very broad idea I'm presenting, as I'm
just a guy that likes to dream at his keyboard :-)

: 
: - John
: --
: hagerman@ece.cmu.edu

Fred

-- 
Fred Floberg - N1GVA at Evil Weather Machines LTD.
email: ...!uunet!hsi!a3bee2!n1gva!fcf
