NASA develops ‘mini’ Mars rover: Falling into the sand can help itself

BEIJING, June 1 ( Xinhua) — Nasa is currently developing a “mini” Mars rover that will be the most perfect probe to explore the surface of Mars, even though its surface is covered with sand and gravel and can still be out of trouble and climb to the top of the mountain, according tomedia reports.

NASA develops 'mini' Mars rover: Falling into the sand can help itself

　　1, Georgia Institute of Technology researchers recently designed a “quick self-help” Mars rover, it is good at “swinging the body”, to remove the surface of the sand and debris.

Because of the complex surface environment on Mars, marsrovers can easily get into trouble during exploration and are far from other rovers, and researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have designed a new rover that can “quickly save itself” and specialize in “swinging the body” to remove sand and debris that cover the surface.

Unlike NASA’s Curiosity rover, which is currently in service, or the Perseverance rover, which is about to land on the surface of Mars this fall, the mini-mars rover is feasible to enter, paddle, and spin the pulley to climb the hills.

The mini-mars rover is believed to be based on NASA’s Resource Explorer 15 (RP15), which can be powered by swinging wheels and testing its ability to save itself in danger.

Professor Dan Goldman, of the Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Physics, said the rover was made from 3D-printed parts. Through the complex movements known as “rear rotor pedals”, the rover is able to successfully climb the ramp based on its unique design, which, when encountered, will be raised by remote operation, combining movements such as travel and wheel rotation.


2, in the next decade, will achieve several Mars exploration missions, is expected to be the end of the 30’s will be the human landing on Mars.

“When the rover gets into a loose layer of earth on the surface, it’s easy to get into trouble, it has plenty of freedom of movement, and it’s very effective to get out of trouble,” Goldman said. It can use the front wheels to push the gravel to the rear of the body, creating a ‘fluid mountain’ for the rear wheels, which generate a rear power when climbing steep slopes. The rover can always be reduced to rubble, creating a hill for itself to form a better rear power. “

The researchers designed a series of ramps to simulate the surface hills of Mars and the moon to test the rover’s mobility. The rover uses a test system called Random Terrain Building System and Test Robotic Exploration Capability (SCATTER), which tilts the body and automatically analyzes how to handle dilemmas.

By creating a small robot like RP15, we can test the principle of movement in an out-of-step state in a controlled laboratory environment, said Andras Karsai, a doctoral student at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Physics. In our tests, we were able to quickly repeat many gait strategies and terrain conditions to verify the problems that arose by changing the gait, moving media, and slope of the robot. This will lead to a novel terrain-aware platform that intelligently switches between wheeled and leg-motion modes to maintain high operating status. The study is now published in the Journal of Science Robotics. (Ye Ding Cheng)