NASA BULLDOZER ROVERS
COULD GET THE SCOOP ON MARS
NASANews@hq.nasa.gov
RELEASE: 01-208
Tiny bulldozer rovers may some day dish up the dirt and pack it in
on Mars. The scoop-and-dump design of a prototype bulldozer rover being developed by NASA
engineers mimics that of a bulldozer and dump truck.
Unlike a life-size bulldozer and dump truck, which can weigh several
thousand pounds, these rovers are lightweight, intelligent and can work without an
operator at the wheel. Yet they have the same capabilities, relative to their size, as
their heavy-duty counterparts.
Robotics engineers think the basic research on these bulldozing rovers
may support future missions to look for life or those to sustain a human presence.
"If water sources, such as hot springs, layers of ice or
groundwater reservoirs are discovered on Mars, a network of these rovers could conduct
scientific investigation and excavate the site piece-by-piece, just as humans would on an
archeological dig," said Brian Wilcox, supervisor of the Robotic Vehicles Group at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Rovers like these may also play a
role in establishing a space outpost for eventual human occupancy. They may be used to
create buried habitats or utility trenches and to excavate resources to support life.
"We think a greater amount of terrain can be excavated if the
workload is shared among several smaller vehicles. Smaller solar powered vehicles have a
higher power-to-weight ratio than bigger vehicles, yet together can perform the same tasks
as a large vehicle," said Wilcox.
Weighing approximately 3.6 kilograms (8 pounds), the bulldozer rovers
have arms with a tiny scoop to dig up and dump the soil into an overhead bucket. They use
their arms to right themselves if they fall over. Working in groups, they will create a
virtual communications network with a central control tower, equipped with stereo cameras
that will provide a 360-degree view of the terrain. A reflector will unfurl from the tower
and divert the sun's energy to bulldozer rovers that are down a hole or ditch.
The bulldozer rovers share the same processor and software as the
nanorover originally designed to fly on a Japanese asteroid mission. Four prototypes are
working at this time. Engineers are working to determine the optimum size of the rovers
for excavation tasks. They expect to have several more working prototypes by the end of
the year.
"When people hear about the work we do, they sometimes think we
are just talking science fiction," said Wayne Schober, manager for advanced robotics
surface systems at JPL. "We worked on some of the most advanced robotic vehicle
designs of the mid-1980s, such as those that enabled the two-armed coordinated robots for
the International Space Station, the Mars Pathfinder Rover and the rovers about to explore
Mars. Weare not all fun and games. We mean business."
These researchers are working on the next generation of air, surface
and subsurface vehicles for exploration of the planets, including Mars and Venus,
Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's largest moon Titan. The vehicles include a tumbleweed
ball, which can blow with the wind; blimps; and all-terrain rovers, which can traverse
down steep hills and gullies.
NASA's Cross Enterprise Technology Development Program provided funding
for this work
The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL
for NASA. JPL is the lead American center for robotic exploration of the solar system.