2023-07-14 12:45:27
On the Moon there are raw materials that humanity could one day extract and use, especially in the face of the challenge of building and maintaining a large lunar base. Several space agencies, such as the European Space Agency (ESA), are already planning missions to better explore Earth’s natural satellite and find useful minerals. For this, suitable exploration vehicles are needed.
A team made up of, among others, Marco Hutter, Philip Arm and Hendrik Kolvenbach, all three from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH), is committed to a mission concept based on teams of robots working together instead of multiple robots working alone in different places.
The researchers equipped each of three robots of the ANYmal model (a type of robot with legs developed at the ETH) with a different set of measurement and analysis tools.
Specifically, Hutter and his colleagues equipped two of the robots with a different specialized set of instruments. In addition, each robot was installed with a different programming. The first one was programmed to be especially good at mapping the terrain and lightly classifying the geology. He was equipped with a laser scanner and several cameras (some of them capable of spectral analysis) to gather the first clues about the mineral composition of the rocks studied. The other specialized robot was taught to accurately identify rocks, using two instruments it was equipped with: a Raman spectrometer and a microscopy camera.
The third robot was trained to be a generalist, instead of a specialist like the other two. He was capable of both mapping terrain and identifying rocks, so his range of tasks was broader than that of specialists. However, he performed these tasks with less precision than the specialists.
Hutter and his colleagues tested the team of three robots in various terrains similar to those on the Moon.
The three legged robots during a test in difficult terrain. (Photo: ETH Zurich / Takahiro Miki. )
After running tests and examining results, Hutter and his colleagues have concluded that a team of robots with specialists and generalists always has a better chance of success than one where all specialists or all generalists.
As for locomotion, robots with legs like the ANYmal model perform well in rocky and steep terrain, for example when going down into a crater. Wheeled robots are at a disadvantage in these types of conditions, but can move faster than legged robots in less difficult terrain. Therefore, for a future mission it would make sense to combine robots that differ in their mode of locomotion.
The researchers also plan to increase the autonomy of the robots. Currently, all the data from the robots is sent to a control center, where an operator assigns tasks to each of them. In the future, robots could be semi-autonomous, directly assigning tasks to each other if no human in the control center gives them specific instructions.
Hutter and his colleagues report the technical details of their experiments on robotic teamwork in the academic journal Science Robotics, under the title “Scientific Exploration of Challenging Planetary Analog Environments with a Team of Legged Robots.” (Source: NCYT from Amazings)
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