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Gravity-Independent Mobility and Drilling on Natural Rock using MicrospinesTo grip rocks on the surfaces of asteroids and comets, and to grip the cliff faces and lava tubes of Mars, a 250 mm diameter omni-directional anchor is presented that utilizes a hierarchical array of claws with suspension flexures, called microspines, to create fast, strong attachment. Prototypes have been demonstrated on vesicular basalt and a'a lava rock supporting forces in all directions away from the rock. Each anchor can support >160 N tangent, >150 N at 45?, and >180 N normal to the surface of the rock. A two-actuator selectively- compliant ankle interfaces these anchors to the Lemur IIB robot for climbing trials. A rotary percussive drill was also integrated into the anchor, demonstrating self-contained rock coring regardless of gravitational orientation. As a harder- than-zero-g proof of concept, 20mm diameter boreholes were drilled 83 mm deep in vesicular basalt samples, retaining a 12 mm diameter rock core in 3-6 pieces while in an inverted configuration, literally drilling into the ceiling.
Document ID
20130010707
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Conference Paper
External Source(s)
Authors
Parness, Aaron
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Frost, Matthew
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Thatte, Nitish
(Rutgers Univ. NJ, United States)
King, Jonathan P.
(Ohio State Univ. OH, United States)
Date Acquired
August 27, 2013
Publication Date
May 7, 2012
Subject Category
Engineering (General)
Meeting Information
Meeting: IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
Location: Saint Paul, MN
Country: United States
Start Date: May 14, 2012
End Date: May 18, 2012
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
climbing mechanisms
climbing robots

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