A team of robots would still be able to complete a mission if one or two of the machines malfunction.
, the researchers describe how their team of robots could be used for space exploration.
"Using multiple robots has two advantages," explained Philip Arm, a doctoral student in the group led by ETH Professor Marco Hutter. "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."
The team of robots was designed to have a good balance between this specialization and redundancy. During tests, two of the robots were deployed as specialists — one robot was programmed for mapping terrain with a Raman spectrometer and a microscopy camera, and the other was programmed for classifying geology with a laser scanner and several cameras.
The third robot was a generalist, and it was able to map the terrain and identify rocks, though with less specialized instruments and, therefore, less precision. "This makes it possible to complete the mission should any one of the robots malfunction,” Arm said.The prize for the ESRIC competition was a one-year research contract to help them further develop their technology.
Next, they aim to experiment with wheeled and flying robots for lunar exploration. They also plan to make their robots more autonomous and less reliant on a single control center for commands.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Dysons, Mieles, Bissells — They’re All on Sale HereFrom Marie Kondo’s favorite air purifier to a very smart robot vacuum.
Read more »
Triple-A baseball tests robot umps with eye on MLBIt's all about the strike zone. So is it a homerun or will it strike out with players and fans?
Read more »
My A.I. Writing RobotA new wave of artificial-intelligence startups is trying to “scale language” by automating the work of writing. I asked one such company to try to replace me.
Read more »