What are robotics?

Robotics is the study of robots. Robots are machines that can be used to do jobs. Some robots can do work by themselves. Other robots must always have a person telling them what to do. NASA uses robots in many different ways. Robotic arms on spacecraft can move large objects in space. Robotic spacecraft can visit other worlds. Robotic airplanes can fly without a pilot aboard. NASA is studying new types of robots. These will work with people and help them.

How Do Robots Explore Other Worlds?

Robots help explore space. Spacecraft that explore other worlds, like the moon or Mars, are robots. These include orbiters, landers and rovers on other planets. The Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity are robots. Other robotic spacecraft fly by or orbit other worlds. These robots study planets from space. The Cassini spacecraft is this type of robot. Cassini studies Saturn and its moons and rings. The Voyager and Pioneer spacecraft are now traveling beyond our solar system. They are also robots. People use computers to send messages to the spacecraft. The robots have antennas that pick up the message commands. Then the robot does what the person has told it to do. With that being said, let’s count down five NASA robots being used and built today.

1.CADRE

NASA’s CADRE (Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration) technology demonstration is sending a trio of rovers the size of a carry-on bag to the Moon. The project is designed to show that multiple robots can cooperate and explore together autonomously. By taking simultaneous measurements from multiple locations, CADRE will also demonstrate how multirobot missions can record data impossible for a single robot to achieve, a tantalizing prospect for future missions.

2.ISRU Pilot Excavator (IPEx)

The ISRU Pilot Excavator (IPEx) is a groundbreaking robotic system designed by NASA to revolutionize lunar excavation. Functioning as both a bulldozer and a dump truck, IPEx is engineered to efficiently mine and transport lunar regolith, the loose rocky material on the Moon’s surface, which is crucial for future lunar missions and In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) processes. This dual capability makes IPEx an indispensable tool for sustainable lunar exploration.

3. Automated Reconfigurable Mission Adaptive Digital Assembly Systems (ARMADAS)

NASA needs the capability to build large-scale solar power, communications, and habitat systems on other planets to support future deep space exploration. The ability to autonomously assemble these types of structures in space instead of sending large pre-assembled hardware from Earth is critical to sustainable future exploration of Moon, the Red planet, and beyond. The Automated Reconfigurable Mission Adaptive Digital Assembly Systems (ARMADAS) project is developing software and hardware that will be able to autonomously assemble materials to make a variety of functional structures such as habitat structures, large antennae arrays, and even a spaceport. The team recently developed “builder robots” capable of autonomously working together and assembling small modular units, called “voxels,” to make a large variety of structures. These robots are barely larger than the voxels they work with, and take advantage of the regularity of these structures to build very large and precise assemblies without large positioning or measurement systems. The project’s special algorithms enable the robots to plan a path, specific movements, and a build sequence through a wireless network.

4. The many robots from the 2022 BIG IDEA challenge

The 2022 BIG Idea Challenge provided undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to design, develop, and demonstrate robotic systems with alternative rover locomotion modalities for use in off-world extreme lunar terrain applications. This competition was an open innovation challenge with minimal constraints so that proposing teams could genuinely create and develop out-of-the-box solutions. Teams were invited to submit proposals for robots with new mobility solutions in operating scenariosthat required access to extreme terrain categories, such as, but not limited to:

• Fluffy/high-porosity regolith expected at the lunar poles
• Steep, rugged slopes (state of the art for a wheeled rover is ~30 degrees)
• Uneven terrain with possible ice content at the bottom of deep-shadowed craters
• Subterranean features, such as caves, lava tubes, and pits

Through this challenge, NASA sought innovative ideas from the academic community for a wide range of alternative rover locomotion modalities to either enhance or replace traditional wheeled mobility systems that can expand access to extreme terrain on the Moon and (later) on Mars.

5.NeBula-Spot

Caves are really important for NASA because they might be the key to find an answer for humanity’s longstanding question of if there is or was life in other planets. In today’s demonstration, our main success metric is if a team of robots can autonomously explore hundreds of meters into a Martian analogue cave. When integrating autonomy and AI on a physical robot, it’s really important that the robot supports the requirements of stability over difficult terrain. At the same time, it’s really important that the robot is capable of carrying enough science instruments while it has necessary endurance and speed. Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot is one of the few that satisfies these requirements simultaneously.