NASA
engineers have unveiled a shape-shifting rover robot called “TETwalker.”Named
for its tetrahedral shape, the prototype has electric motors at each corner, or
node, of the pyramid.These motors
connect to telescoping struts, which form the sides of the pyramid.The walker moves around by changing the
length of the struts, which shifts the bot’s center
of gravity and causes it to topple over.
A
robot designed to topple over on a planet millions of miles away may sound like
a bad idea, but engineers intend for the walker to do just that.
"If
current robotic rovers topple over on a distant planet, they are doomed --
there is no way to send someone to get them back on their wheels again.
However, TETwalkers move by toppling over. It's a
very reliable way to get around," said Stephen Curtis, principal
investigator for the Autonomous Nanotechnology Swarms (ANTS) project at NASA.
The
team is now working to miniaturize the robots by replacing the motors with Micro-
and Nano-Electro-Mechanical Systems.They will likewise replace the struts with
metal tape or carbon nanotubes to further reduce the
robot’s size, making it easier to pack large numbers of the walkers into a
rocket.
The
engineers are also working on computer models to string hundreds of the mini-robots
together, creating a swarm that will be extremely flexible and capable of
carrying out many tasks.They hope that
the swarm of robots will be able to move snake-like over a planet’s terrain,
and, upon discovering something of interest, “grow” an antenna to transmit data
to Earth.
