Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!NIC.DDN.MIL!KLH From: KLH@NIC.DDN.MIL (Ken Harrenstien) Newsgroups: sci.space Subject: Microrovers Message-ID: <12551336688.32.KLH@NIC.DDN.MIL> Date: 19 Dec 89 13:11:38 GMT References: Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 21 I'm a little surprised that during the discussion of Mars rovers, etc, nobody has debated the notion of microrovers or microspacecraft. There were some interesting articles about this in the October 1989 issue of Aerospace America (featuring "Genghis Microrover" on the cover). Briefly, the basic concept is to stamp out thousands (even millions) of cheap tiny probes or "gnat robots" which could then be used with great abandon, relying on their smaller scale and greater numbers to bypass the currently prohibitive requirements for reliability or sophistication. The articles list lots of neat little ideas and applications for these things. The authors were Ross M. Jones and James D. Burke of JPL (microspacecraft) plus Rodney A. Brooks and Anita M. Flynn of the MIT A.I. Lab (microrovers). What makes this a little more interesting than the usual theoretical brainstorming is the illustrations of actual MIT mobile robot testbeds, the smallest weighing 50g. It would be nice if someone familiar with these areas of research could post additional details... --Ken -------