Communications of the ACM
Robot Team on Lunar Exploration Tour
Teamwork makes the robots both efficient and robust in the event of a failure.
Credit: Takahiro Miki/ETH Zurich
A Swiss team led by researchers at ETH Zurich has proposed sending teams of complementary robots on exploratory Moon missions instead of a single rover.
The researchers tested three ANYmal robots outfitted with measuring and analysis instruments on various terrains.
Two of the robots were used as specialists, with one programmed to handle terrain mapping and geological classification and the other equipped with a Raman spectrometer and a microscopy camera to identify rocks with precision.
The third robot was used as a generalist.
ETH's Philip Arm said, "Using multiple robots has two advantages. The individual robots can take on specialized tasks and perform them simultaneously. Moreover, thanks to its redundancy, a robot team is able to compensate for a teammate's failure."
From ETH Zurich (Switzerland)
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