Stanford Team Developing Spiked Robots To Explore Phobos 49
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Unknown Lamer
from the target-practice-for-doom dept.
from the target-practice-for-doom dept.
cylonlover writes "Robot hedgehogs on the moons of Mars may sound like the title of a B-grade sci-fi movie, but that is what Stanford University is working on. Marco Pavone, an assistant professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and his team are developing spherical robots called 'hedgehogs' that are about half a meter (1.6 ft) wide and covered in spikes to better cope with rolling and hopping across the surface of the Martian moon Phobos with its very low gravity."
red banner (Score:1)
already exists (Score:1)
"Robot hedgehogs on the moons of Mars" (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Courtesy of "cylonlover." BY YOUR COMMAND.
Re: (Score:2)
Carefully.
I don't get it (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I don't get it (Score:4, Interesting)
In answer to your second question, you keep the speed down.
On the other hand if you need to jump across something, then just a little boost will do it...
Re:I don't get it (Score:5, Informative)
The spikes aren't providing traction or propulsion, they are holding it above the surface. It moves by inertia. There are three spinning disks that they change the rotation of, and that change in rotation makes the thing 'fall over', and hence move.
Re: (Score:3)
The spikes aren't providing traction or propulsion, they are holding it above the surface. It moves by inertia. There are three spinning disks that they change the rotation of, and that change in rotation makes the thing 'fall over', and hence move.
Also, they keep the solar panels covering the thing off the ground. Solar panels don't last long when used as a wheel.
Re: (Score:2)
You should tell them. Give them a stern warning about the consequences of giving their project less thought than a Slashdot AC again!
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I think it is more that the surface of the probe is going to have fragile equipment on it like sensors and solar cells. They can't just let it roll around like that because this things will get wrecked. Rolling on the spikes means that the gear on the outside of the probe will be protected and in a posititon to examine the surface of the moon. Additionally there won't be much need to control attitide. Attitide control can be tricky on a small moon because it may not be obvious which way is "down".
Infocom (Score:4, Funny)
Should fit in well with the Leather Godesses.
Gateway To Hell Option? (Score:1)
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Already Saw The Movie (Score:2)
spherical robots... that are about half a meter (1.6 ft) wide and covered in spikes
The Tall Man [wikipedia.org] approves!
Waste of money. (Score:1)
Re:Waste of money. (Score:5, Funny)
Given that Phobos is most likely a captured body, this does not seem like a good return on the investment.
Why, do they expect to be charged with receipt of stolen property?
Re: (Score:1)
Given that Phobos appears to be made of some of the same stuff Mars is made of, and has a circular equatorial orbit around a planet with a thin atmosphere, the capture theory seems unlikely. But if it were captured, figuring out how the heck that happened would give us a lot of insight into the early solar system.
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Bad Shipment (Score:1)
Instead of our shipment of spiky ball robots, we got these useless crates of chainsaws... What the hell do we need chainsaws on mars for?!
Dr. Robotnik & Metal Sonic? (Score:2)
Am I the only one who is suddenly stuck with a Dr. Robotnik / Metal Sonic from Sonic the Hedgehog song stuck in my head now?
KINO's big brother? (Score:2)
I Misread the Title as... (Score:1)
"Stanford Team Developing Spiked Robots To Explore Robots"
My initial reaction was "Poor robots :("
Spiked... (Score:2)
You spelled "Hobos" wrong. (Score:2)
You spelled "Hobos" wrong.
Reminescent design (Score:2)
The design looks a lot like something out of the account of a credible individual in the UK who has suffered from an Alien Abduction experience. He describes spheres with much fewer feet than the NASA version, and how they pivoted and rolled to make a path of animal-like foot prints.
Source; the following remarkable series:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke's_Mysterious_World#U.F.O.s_-_4_November_1980 [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Sorry, replying to my own post, but I decided to take a screenshot from the source I mentioned:
http://i.imgur.com/myOi3.jpg [imgur.com]
He's the fastest thing alive... (Score:1)
Sounds like "Willis" from Red Planet (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
More like 90% of the people designing space vehicles these days grew up on Heinlein juveniles.