PUFFER (Pop-Up Flat Folding Explorer Robot), Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, USA

[Airicist]

Developer - Jet Propulsion Laboratory (https://pr.ai/showthread.php?2006)

gameon.nasa.gov/projects/puffer (https://gameon.nasa.gov/projects/puffer)

[Airicist]

https://youtu.be/LYrdMiyDJFU

PUFFER: Traverses 45-degree incline with rocky obstacles

Published on Mar 12, 2017


Pop-Up Flat Folding Explorer Robots, or PUFFER, is a small, origami-inspired robotic technology under development to provide a low-volume, low-cost mission enhancement for accessing new science from extreme terrains that are of high interest to future NASA missions. A “pop-up” robot that folds into a small, smartphone-sized weight and volume, PUFFER’s compact design means numerous robots can be packed into a larger “parent” craft at a low payload cost, then deployed on a planet’s surface individually to increase surface mobility.

[Airicist]

https://youtu.be/wPtYBBbyTiw

PUFFER: Fast-motion video of a 250-m journey

Published on Mar 12, 2017

[Airicist]

https://youtu.be/jwBmxdS9fm8

PUFFER: A simple motor driver and robust, enclosed structure

Published on Mar 12, 2017

[Airicist]

https://youtu.be/yaEleljHY98

PUFFER: Two-wheel mobility configuration adjust to traverse slippery incline

Published on Mar 12, 2017

[Airicist]

https://youtu.be/tNyjZ_3NaKI

PUFFER: Withstands 3-m drop (Mars gravity)

Published on Mar 12, 2017

[Airicist]

https://youtu.be/nRmorQmGqVM

PUFFER: Senses obstacles and self-adjusts appropriately

Published on Mar 12, 2017

[Airicist]

https://youtu.be/vDlTkF44Ozg

NASA’s PUFFER robot can explore extreme terrains

Published on Mar 20, 2017


The origami-inspired Pop-Up Flat Folding Explorer Robots (PUFFER) is being designed to take on the hard to reach terrains on future NASA missions. Due to its small size and weight, “numerous robots can be packed into a larger “parent” craft at a low payload cost,” according to the space agency.

[Airicist]

Articles "NASA’s Shapeshifting Origami Robot Squeezes Where Others Can’t (https://www.wired.com/2017/03/nasas-shapeshifting-origami-robot-squeezes-others-cant)"

by Margaret Rhodes
March 29, 2017

[Airicist]

https://youtu.be/Fgwhvc_qGqw

NASA tests origami-inspired robot that may one day explore Mars

Published on May 23, 2017


This small, nimble robot can fold and unfold itself