Stanford Team Developing Spiked Robots To Explore Phobos

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

[605dave]

Having this headline show up as a red banner was actually kind of alarming. It made me want to be sure where these spiked robots were headed.

already exists

[slashmydots]

They're obviously stealing the idea from video games, as a metal robotic hedgehog already exists. Mecha Sonic ring a bell? Oh and for the record, he was on a space station in the game.

"Robot hedgehogs on the moons of Mars"

[DiamondGeezer]

I for one welcome our Martian robot hedgehog overlords.

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[Ol Biscuitbarrel]

Courtesy of "cylonlover." BY YOUR COMMAND.

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[drainbramage]

Carefully.

I don't get it

[Dunbal]

How does reducing the actual surface area in contact with the ground help it stay on a moon with low gravity? Or are the "spikes" expected to sink into the "dust" or something? What happens when this thing drives over a rock?

Re:I don't get it

[DiamondGeezer]

The problem with low gravity is low friction. So in order to drive across a body with low gravity, you need to increase the effective coefficient of friction (or increase the mass, which makes it more expensive to get there).

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

[bws111]

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.

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[dotancohen]

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.

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[shaitand]

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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[stoneoffire]

Did you even read the article? I know, I know, blasphemy.....

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[MichaelSmith]

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

[Anonymous Coward]

Should fit in well with the Leather Godesses.

Gateway To Hell Option?

[FlamingAtheist]

Corporate sponsorship is by Union Aerospace Corporation, what could possibly go wrong....

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[egr]

Not to worry! If anything goes wrong they'll send a squad of marines, and leave one guy with a pistol to guard the hangar outside just in case.

Already Saw The Movie

[CanHasDIY]

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.

[dlmarti]

Given that Phobos is most likely a captured body, this does not seem like a good return on the investment.

Re:Waste of money.

[vlm]

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:

[Anonymous Coward]

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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[dlmarti]

No, but I would hope there would be a better use of our very limited NASA budget.

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[surd1618]

Phobos is estimated to be ~30% empty space. There might be cavities inside that could be filled with SP breathable mix and inhabited by people for as long as low gravity allows.

Bad Shipment

[Anonymous Coward]

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?!

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

KINO's big brother?

[ArhcAngel]

So we can't make a levitating [wikia.com] version so we go big and spiky?

I Misread the Title as...

[AdaStarks]

"Stanford Team Developing Spiked Robots To Explore Robots"

My initial reaction was "Poor robots :("

Spiked...

[flyingfsck]

So how do they spike a robot? Do they add some meth to the hydrazine? Thank you, I'll be here all week...

You spelled "Hobos" wrong.

[wiedzmin]

You spelled "Hobos" wrong.

Reminescent design

[Ceriel Nosforit]

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:

[Ceriel Nosforit]

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...

[PhyrexStrike]

The real questions are: are they blue? and, can they go fast?

Sounds like "Willis" from Red Planet

[SpaceManFlip]

Robert Heinlein's ideas are once again prophetic. In the book Red Planet the adventuresome protagonist has a pet/friend Martian named Willis who is a spherical native animal that mostly moves by rolling and bouncing along. The "bouncer" creatures also extended appendages for movement or sensing things (spikes?).

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[MichaelSmith]

More like 90% of the people designing space vehicles these days grew up on Heinlein juveniles.