Rock climbing robot, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, USA

[Airicist]

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

[Airicist]

https://youtu.be/0KUdyBm6bcY

NASA JPL Robotic Microspines

Published on May 16, 2012


NASA JPL researchers present a 250-mm diameter omni-directional anchor that uses an array of claws with suspension flexures, called microspines, designed to grip rocks on the surfaces of asteroids and comets and to grip the cliff faces and lava tubes of Mars. Part of the paper, "Gravity-Independent Mobility and Drilling on Natural Rock Using Microspines," by A. Parness et al., presented at the 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[Airicist]

https://youtu.be/AjPZAYNqQrQ

Published on Nov 6, 2013


JPL has developed the worlds first rock climbing robot. This video presents climbing trials at vertical, overhanging, and inverted angles, and a zero-g drill for astronauts.

"Video Presentation of a Rock Climbing Robot," by Aaron Parness, Matt Frost, Jonathan A King, Nitish Thatte, Kevin Witkoe, Moises Nevarez, Michael Garrett, Hrand Aghazarian, and Brett Kennedy, from JPL/Caltech, was presented at IROS 2013 in Tokyo, Japan.

[Airicist]

https://youtu.be/8Zdj66ljk0I

LEMUR 3 Climbing Robot

Published on Feb 22, 2017


Introducing the LEMUR 3 climbing robot from JPL, the latest in a series of limbed robots from JPL.

LEMUR 3 is a four-limbed robot with 7 degrees of freedom per limb. It has swappable end effectors that allow it to climb on a variety of surfaces, or maneuver in microgravity. Using microspine grippers, LEMUR 3 demonstrated rock climbing in a lava tube in the El Malpais National Monument in New Mexico. Microspines use sharp hooks to grip bumps, pits, and ledges on a rough surface.

LEMUR 3 has also used gecko-adhesive end effectors to demonstrate mobility on smooth surfaces. In space, this would allow a LEMUR-like robot to crawl across the outside of a space station or satellite, doing inspection, repairs, taking videos, or pointing scientific instruments.

The end effectors can be swapped out depending on the application with minimal changes to the software, if any. A new ice-screw end effector is also in development for LEMUR 3 so that it can explore ice caves and glaciers.

Current work is focused on providing LEMUR 3 with increased perception and autonomy so that it can choose its own footholds and generate limb trajectories onboard in real time.

[Airicist]

https://youtu.be/q2SKa9IEG4M

NASA climbing robot scales cliffs and looks for life

Published on Jul 10, 2019


Robots can land on the Moon and drive on Mars, but what about the places they can't reach? Designed by engineers as NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, a four-limbed robot named LEMUR (Limbed Excursion Mechanical Utility Robot) can scale rock walls, gripping with hundreds of tiny fishhooks in each of its 16 fingers and using artificial intelligence to find its way around obstacles. In its last field test in Death Valley, California, in early 2019, LEMUR chose a route up a cliff, scanning the rock for ancient fossils from the sea that once filled the area.

The LEMUR project has since concluded, but it helped lead to a new generation of walking, climbing and crawling robots. In future missions to Mars or icy moons, robots with AI and climbing technology derived from LEMUR could discover similar signs of life. Those robots are being developed now, honing technology that may one day be part of future missions to distant worlds.