There is a lot that human beings can do well, and yet there is little we do better than growing on a consistent basis. This tendency to improve, no matter the situation, has brought the world some huge milestones, with technology emerging as a major member of the stated group. The reason why we hold technology in such a high regard is, by and large, predicated upon its skill-set, which guided us towards a reality that nobody could have ever imagined otherwise. Nevertheless, if we look beyond the surface for a second, it will become clear how the whole runner was also very much inspired from the way we applied those skills across a real world environment. The latter component, in fact, did a lot to give the creation a spectrum-wide presence and initiate a full-blown tech revolution. Of course, this revolution then went on to scale up the human experience through some outright unique avenues, but even after achieving a feat so notable, technology will somehow continue to bring forth the right goods. The same has only turned more and more evident in recent times, and assuming a new discovery ends up with the desired impact, it will put that trend on a higher pedestal moving forward.

The researching team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has successfully created a snake-like robot, which is given the capabilities to traverse extreme terrain. Named EELS (Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor), the robot weighs somewhere around 220 pounds, while simultaneously boasting a height of 13 feet. It further comes decked up with 10 identical segments that rotate using screw threads for propulsion, traction, and grip. Another notable feature in play is how the EELS creates a 3D map of its surroundings through four different pairs of stereo cameras and lidar. The purpose here, like you can guess, is to leverage the stated sensors and make robot’s navigation algorithms more informed. Interestingly enough, the researchers hope to, over the long run, put-together a comprehensive library of “gaits,” or ways the robot can move in response to terrain challenges. Anyway, EELS is expected to contain 48 actuators that will generate the needed flexibility for assuming multiple configurations. We referred to the actuators, they also have built-in force-torque sensing, a capability which works like skin so to let EELS feel how much force it’s exerting on the terrain.

“We have a different philosophy of robot development than traditional spacecraft, with many quick cycles of testing and correcting,” said Hiro Ono, principal investigator of EELS. “There are dozens of textbooks about how to design a four-wheel vehicle, but there is no textbook about how to design an autonomous snake robot to boldly go where no robot has gone before. We have to write our own. That’s what we’re doing now.”

The proceedings on EELS began back in 2019, and it was last year when the team started conducting field tests and refining both the hardware and the software which will allow EELS to operate autonomously. As an attempt towards proving the concept on a more practical note, they tested the robot across sandy, snowy, and icy environments, from the Mars Yard at JPL to a “robot playground”, and going by the available details, the observations they made were fairly encouraging. When quizzed regarding its future, though, Mathew Robinson, project manager of EELS, hinted at using the robot for scientific objectives.

“Our focus so far has been on autonomous capability and mobility, but eventually we’ll look at what science instruments we can integrate with EELS,” Robinson said. “Scientists tell us where they want to go, what they’re most excited about, and we’ll provide a robot that will get them there. How? Like a startup, we just have to build it.”