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From: dml@philabs.philips.com (Damian M. Lyons)
Subject: Re: How to Explore Mars; diverted.
Message-ID: <1993Feb2.181509.12700@philabs.philips.com>
Originator: dml@rabbit
Sender: news@philabs.philips.com (Mr. C. News)
Organization: Philips Labs, Briarcliff Manor, NY
References: <58691@dime.cs.umass.edu> <C14942.n2u.2@cs.cmu.edu> <HAGERMAN.93Jan29124902@rx7.ece.cmu.edu>
Date: Tue, 2 Feb 1993 18:15:09 GMT
Lines: 24


In article <HAGERMAN.93Jan29124902@rx7.ece.cmu.edu>, hagerman@ece.cmu.edu (John Hagerman) writes:
|> Here's an example.  Let's say we send something to Mars that is able
|> to cross ravines (long legs, can build bridges, hops, or something).
|> Then it is discovered that the Martians built only at the bottoms of
|> ravines, but we had assumed that ravines were for crossing, not for
|> exploring.  This leads me to wonder: what kind of exploration system
|> would be able to cover the most kinds of terrain?
|> 

Okay, I'll bite. You need something like Fukuda's Cellular Robots: a
system composed of a large number of functionally simple units that
can be linked together to form different different mechnical structures. 
Monday's ravine crosser becomes Tuesday's wall crawler, I suppose.

Stretching the idea a little, were one to combine micro- or nanomachine
technology with this idea, one could arguably create a system that appeared
to smoothly flow while changing shape. 

Damian.
-- 
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         Damian M. Lyons | x6444 | dml@philabs.philips.com       
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