Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1997 21:56:26 GMT Server: Apache/1.2-dev Connection: close Content-Type: text/html Last-Modified: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 20:38:30 GMT ETag: "c9a02-995-3177f9c6" Content-Length: 2453 Accept-Ranges: bytes The Rockettes: 10-Gram Microrovers for Mars

The Rockettes

10-Gram Microrovers for Mars


No, no, they're not golf balls! They are an artist's conception of what a Mars landing made by a community of microrovers would look like. The idea is that a whole bunch of very small rovers could spread out and collect data collectively. If each robot had a few sensors and were programmed to disperse around the landing area, it might be possible to gather more data than their size would suggest.

Having more than rover also allows for greater mission flexibility and reliability. If there are two very interesting rocks in different directions from each other, a single rover would have a difficult time getting to both of them at the same time. Also, if a few of the microrovers malfunction, there will still be enough left to complete the task at hand.

People

Professor Rodney Brooks (brooks@ai.mit.edu)
Principal Investigator

James McLurkin (jdmac@ai.mit.edu)
Microrobots

Sponsors

This work is sponsored by NASA JPL

Related Research at the MIT AI Lab

Pebbles
A vision-based mobile robot that uses a single camera for obstacle avoidance in rough, unstructured environments. Some of the potential applications for this research include Mars exploration and explosive ordnance disposal.

The Ants
Microrobots designed to explore ideas about robotic communities. One of the potential applications for this research is explosive ordnance disposal.

Related Research Elsewhere

  • IS Robotics, Inc.