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Material Testing for Robotic Omnidirectional AnchorTo successfully explore near-Earth Asteroids the question of mobility emerges as the key issue for any robotic mission. When small bodies have extremely low escape velocities, traditional methods, such as wheels, would send the robot hurtling off of the asteroid's surface. To solve this problem, JPL has developed an omni-directional anchoring mechanism for use in microgravity that utilizes microspine technology. These microspines are placed in circular arrays with 16 independent carriages biasing the surface of the rock. The asperities in the surface allow the gripper to hold nearly 150N in all directions. While the gripper has been proven successful on consolidated rocks, it had yet to be tested on a variety of other surfaces that are suspected to separate the large boulders on an asteroid. Since asteroid surfaces vary widely, from friable rocks to lose ponds of regolith, the gripper was tested in a large variety of materials such as, bonded pumice, sand, gravel, and loose rocks. The forces are applied tangent, at 45 degrees, and normal to the surface of the material. The immediate results from this experiment will give insight into the gripper's effectiveness across the wide spectrum of materials found on asteroids.
Document ID
20150005563
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Other
External Source(s)
Authors
Witkoe, Kevin S.
(Idaho Univ. Moscow, ID, United States)
Date Acquired
April 13, 2015
Publication Date
August 1, 2012
Subject Category
Cybernetics, Artificial Intelligence And Robotics
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
Near-Earth Asteroids (NEOs)
microspine
robotic platforms
robotic missions

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