NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has created a self-propelled, autonomous robotic snake designed to discover excessive extraterrestrial terrain. Its first-of-a-kind propulsion system means it will probably boldly go the place no robotic snake has gone earlier than.
The robotic snake is named an Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor (EELS) and was impressed by a want to search for life deep in Saturn’s icy moon, Enceladus.
Within the mid-to-late-2000s, when the Cassini spacecraft despatched again to Earth photos of Enceladus, one in every of Saturn’s 83 moons, scientists found it was lively and hiding a salty ocean of liquid water beneath its crust, one thing that solely a handful of worlds are identified to own. What’s distinctive about Enceladus – which is sufficiently small to suit throughout the size of the UK – is that it repeatedly sprays plumes of icy particles from that ocean, blended with water and easy natural chemical substances, into area.
Investigating these plumes, and the slender vents they escape from, are what prompted the event of EELS. Building of the prototype started in 2019 and has been commonly up to date. Since 2022, the JPL staff has been conducting month-to-month discipline assessments to refine the robotic’s {hardware} and software program in order that it’s capable of function autonomously.
The present iteration of EELS is 13-ft (4-m) lengthy and weighs about 220 lb (100 kg). Its 10 similar, rotating segments use screw heads for propulsion and grip. The EELS staff have experimented with completely different screws to be used in numerous terrains: 3D-printed plastic screws for looser terrain and sharper steel screws for ice.
The staff has examined EELS utilizing a snowy ‘robotic playground’ at a Southern Californian ski resort, at an indoor ice rink, and in sandy terrain. As a result of they’ve entered new territory with EELS, the testing course of has been tutorial.
NASA/JPL-CalTech
“We now have a unique philosophy of robotic improvement than conventional spacecraft, with many fast cycles of testing and correcting,” stated Hiro Ono, JPL’s principal investigator. “There are dozens of textbooks about the best way to design a four-wheel automobile, however there is no such thing as a textbook about the best way to design an autonomous snake robotic to boldly go the place no robotic has gone earlier than. We now have to jot down our personal.”
Given the communication lag between Earth and deep area, EELS’ capability to function autonomously is necessary. If it runs into an issue, it wants to have the ability to recuperate by itself with out counting on human help.
“Think about a automobile driving autonomously, however there aren’t any cease indicators, no visitors alerts, not even any roads,” stated Rohan Thakker, the venture’s autonomy lead. “The robotic has to determine what the street is and attempt to observe it. Then it must go down a 100-feet [30-m] drop and never fall.”
To help with autonomy, EELS makes use of 4 pairs of stereo cameras and LiDAR (Gentle Detection and Ranging) to supply a 3D map of its environment. LiDAR determines vary by concentrating on a floor or object with a laser and measuring the time it takes for the mirrored mild to return to the receiver. EELS makes use of this info to create navigation algorithms in order that it will probably extra simply traverse difficult areas.
To check EELS’ mapping capabilities, final 12 months, the JPL staff dropped the robotic’s head – the half that accommodates the cameras and LiDAR – right into a vertical shaft at Athabasca Glacier within the Canadian Rockies. They’ll return to the glacier in September with an up to date model of EELS to see the way it fared.
EELS’ closing type will include 48 little motors (actuators) that can present extra flexibility. Many have built-in force-torque sensing, which is able to allow EELS to ‘really feel’ how a lot strain it’s exerting on the terrain. This may assist it to navigate uneven surfaces in slender areas very like a rock climber does, shimmying upward or downward by pushing in opposition to opposing partitions.
The following step is to include scientific devices.
“Our focus to date has been on autonomous functionality and mobility, however finally we’ll take a look at what science devices we are able to combine with EELS,” stated Matthew Robinson, EELS venture supervisor. “Scientists inform us the place they wish to go, what they’re most enthusiastic about, and we’ll present a robotic that can get them there.”
EELS adaptability signifies that, apart from Enceladus, the robotic snake can be utilized to discover Mars’ polar caps, or deep icy crevasses on our personal planet.
Nonetheless, it is a while until EELS might be slithering throughout the terrain of different planets. Scientists hope the robotic might be full by fall subsequent 12 months, nonetheless it is then anticipated to be a decade-long anticipate a spacecraft to taxi EELS to Enceladus.
The video beneath, from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, exhibits EELS being examined in numerous environments.
Testing Out JPL’s New Snake Robotic
Supply: NASA/JPL
