Solitary lunar rovers have been invaluable to our efforts exploring the Moon.
They gave them different tasks and specialties and fitted them with the respective equipment.
Using multiple robots has two advantages, explained Philip Arm, a doctoral student in the group.
The individual robots can take on specialised tasks and perform them simultaneously.
Moreover, thanks to its redundancy, a robot team is able to compensate for a teammates failure.
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The second specialist was taught to identify rocks, fitted with aRaman spectrometerand a microscopy camera.
Meanwhile, the generalist was equipped to both map the terrain and identify rocks, but with less precision.
This makes it possible to complete the mission should any one of the robots malfunction, Arm said.
The competition involved finding and identifying minerals on a test site modelled after the Moons surface.
As a prize, the team was awarded with a one-year research contract to further develop the technology.
The researchers plan to enhance the squad with robots on wheels,and even flying robots.
you’re able to find the full researchhere.
Story byIoanna Lykiardopoulou
Ioanna is a writer at TNW.
With a background in the humanities, she has a soft spot for social impact-enabling technologies.
