Illustration of the Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor (EELS) principle. This flexible, snake-like robot is being created to autonomously explore uncharted terrains in area and in the world without real-time human input. Credit NASA/JPL-CalTech
A versatile robotic that would autonomously map, traverse, and check out previously inaccessible destinations is being tested at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
How do you develop a robot that can go locations nobody has ever seen before– on its own, without real-time human input? A group at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory thats developing a snake-like robot for passing through extreme surface is handling the obstacle with the mindset of a start-up: Build rapidly, test often, learn, change, repeat.
Called EELS (brief for Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor), the self-propelled, autonomous robotic was motivated by a desire to search for indications of life in the ocean hiding listed below the icy crust of Saturns moon Enceladus by coming down narrow vents in the surface that spew geysers into area. Although screening and advancement continue, designing for such a tough location has actually led to an extremely versatile robot. EELS could select a safe course through a broad variety of surface on Earth, the Moon, and far beyond, consisting of undulating sand and ice, cliff walls, craters too high for rovers, underground lava tubes, and labyrinthine areas within glaciers.
Group members from JPL test a snake robot called EELS at a ski resort in the Southern California mountains in February. Some robotics are better at one particular type of surface or other, the concept for EELS is the capability to do it all,” said JPLs Matthew Robinson, EELS task supervisor.” We have a different approach of robotic development than conventional spacecraft, with numerous fast cycles of screening and correcting,” said Hiro Ono, EELS principal detective at JPL. “There are dozens of books about how to design a four-wheel car, however there is no textbook about how to design a self-governing snake robot to boldly go where no robotic has actually gone in the past. JPLs EELS (Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor) was developed of as an autonomous snake robotic that would descend narrow vents in the icy crust of Saturns moon Enceladus to explore the ocean hidden below.
Employee from JPL test a snake robotic called EELS at a ski resort in the Southern California mountains in February. Designed to notice its environment, calculate threat, travel, and collect data without real-time human input, EELS could ultimately check out destinations throughout the planetary system. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
” It has the capability to go to locations where other robotics cant go. Though some robots are better at one particular type of terrain or other, the idea for EELS is the ability to do it all,” stated JPLs Matthew Robinson, EELS project manager. “When youre going locations where you do not know what youll discover, you wish to send out a flexible, risk-aware robot thats prepared for unpredictability– and can make decisions on its own.”
Considering that last year, theyve been conducting regular monthly field tests and refining both the hardware and the software that permits EELS to operate autonomously. In its present type, dubbed EELS 1.0, the robotic weighs about 220 pounds (100 kgs) and is 13 feet (4 meters) long.
EELS is evaluated in the sandy terrain of JPLs Mars Yard in April. Engineers repeatedly check the snake robot across a variety of terrain, including sand, ice, and snow. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The robot has actually been put to the test in sandy, snowy, and icy environments, from the Mars Yard at JPL to a “robot play area” produced at a ski resort in the snowy mountains of Southern California, even at a regional indoor ice rink.
” We have a different approach of robot advancement than traditional spacecraft, with numerous fast cycles of testing and remedying,” stated Hiro Ono, EELS primary investigator at JPL. “There are lots of books about how to develop a four-wheel lorry, but there is no book about how to design a self-governing snake robot to boldly go where no robot has actually gone before.
JPLs EELS (Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor) was developed of as a self-governing snake robot that would descend narrow vents in the icy crust of Saturns moon Enceladus to check out the ocean concealed below. But prototypes of have been tested to prepare the robotic for a range of environments. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
How EELS Thinks and Moves
Because of the communications lag time in between Earth and deep space, EELS is designed to autonomously sense its environment, compute threat, travel, and collect information with yet-to-be-determined science instruments. When something fails, the goal is for the robot to recuperate by itself, without human support.
” Imagine an automobile driving autonomously, but there are no stop indications, no traffic signals, not even any roads. The robot needs to find out what the road is and try to follow it,” said the jobs autonomy lead, Rohan Thakker. “Then it needs to decrease a 100-foot drop and not fall.”
Members of JPLs EELS team lower the robotics sensor head– which utilizes lidar and stereo cameras to map its environment– into a vertical shaft called a moulin on Athabasca Glacier in British Columbia in September 2022. The team will return to the location in 2023 and 2024 for additional tests with variations of the complete snake robotic. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
EELS creates a 3D map of its surroundings utilizing four pairs of stereo cameras and lidar, which resembles radar but utilizes short laser pulses rather of radio waves. With the data from those sensing units, navigation algorithms figure out the best path forward. The goal has been to develop library of “gaits,” or ways the robotic can move in response to terrain obstacles, from sidewinding to curling in on itself, a move the group calls “banana.”.
In its final kind, the robotic will contain 48 actuators– basically little motors– that give it the flexibility to assume several configurations but add intricacy for both the hardware and software groups. Many of them have integrated force-torque sensing, working like a kind of skin so EELS can feel how much force its putting in on surface.
The screws that move EELS while providing traction and grip are lined up in a laboratory at JPL. The remaining 3D-printed plastic screws– with differing lengths, lead angles, thread heights, and edge sharpness– have been tested on looser snow and sand.
Last year, the EELS group got to experience those kinds of difficult spaces when they decreased the robots perception head– the section with the video cameras and lidar– into a vertical shaft called a moulin at Athabasca Glacier in the Canadian Rockies. In September, theyre returning to the place, which remains in numerous methods an analog for icy moons in our solar system, with a version of the robotic developed to evaluate subsurface movement. The team will drop a small sensing unit suite– to keep track of glacier chemical and physical properties– that EELS will become able to deploy to remote websites.
” Our focus so far has actually been on self-governing capability and mobility, however ultimately well take a look at what science instruments we can integrate with EELS,” Robinson said. “Scientists tell us where they want to go, what theyre most thrilled about, and well supply a robotic that will get them there. How? Like a start-up, we just have to develop it.”.
The EELS system is a mobile instrument platform conceived to check out internal surface structures, evaluate habitability and ultimately look for proof of life. It is designed to be versatile to pass through ocean-world-inspired surface, fluidized media, enclosed labyrinthian environments, and liquids. Credit: NASA/JPL-CalTech.
More About the Project.
EELS is funded by the Office of Technology Infusion and Strategy at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California through an innovation accelerator program called JPL Next. The robotic is not presently part of any NASA mission.
