Title :
Mobility and Power Feasibility of a Microbot Team System for Extraterrestrial Cave Exploration
Author :
Kesner, Samuel B. ; Plante, Jean-Sebastien ; Boston, Penelope J. ; Fabian, Tibor ; Dubowsky, Steven
Author_Institution :
Massachusetts Inst. of Technol., Cambridge, MA
Abstract :
Planetary scientists are greatly interested in the caves present on the Moon and Mars, however these areas present major challenges to current space robots. A new space robotics concept, microbots, is presented and a possible reference mission to Mars is discussed. The feasibility of the mobility and power systems of the microbot are analyzed within the context of the reference mission. The results of this analysis are that the microbot system is a feasible concept for a development timeline of approximately 10 years.
Keywords :
aerospace robotics; mobile robots; multi-robot systems; navigation; Mars; Moon; extraterrestrial cave exploration; microbot team system; space robotics; Data envelopment analysis; Mars; Mobile robots; Moon; Navigation; Orbital robotics; Power system analysis computing; Robotics and automation; Space missions; Space technology;
Conference_Titel :
Robotics and Automation, 2007 IEEE International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Roma
Print_ISBN :
1-4244-0601-3
Electronic_ISBN :
1050-4729
DOI :
10.1109/ROBOT.2007.364233