Soon, dogs will be roaming the surface of the planet Mars. well actually “robot dogs”. Currently, scientists from NASA/JPL Caltech are working on the development of “Mars Dogs”, which are robot dogs configured to autonomously navigate the rugged terrain and underground caverns of the Red Planet. The team presented its plan virtually this Monday . in the annual edition of American Geophysical Union (AGU). 2w5j2k
A robot dog on Mars v592s
These “Mars Dogs” will operate in the same way as the rover (remotely controlled exploratory robots) Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity and Perseverance, but they will be able to do much more. These new four-legged robots will be much more agile and will come equipped with sensors that will warn them when obstacles are in their way, as well as being able to select specific paths and create virtual maps of tunnels and underground caves, the scientists said.
Best of all, these robotic dogs will be able to pick themselves up if they fall into the rough terrain of Mars — something that current robots are unable to do. But what about the NASA/JPL Caltech robot dog? Well, it's none other than the famous robot dog from Boston Dynamics, Spot. For this project, Spot will be modified and called “Au-Spot”, as the AGU scientists said.
Au-Spot was equipped with networked sensors and specific software to safely navigate the Red Planet. The robot dog from Mars is currently being tested by the team to navigate a series of different obstacle courses on Earth. Their training tasks consist of going through tunnels, climbing stairs and ramps, and in locations reminiscent of the surface and subsurface of Mars.
Adding these canine robots to Mars could revolutionize research on the planet. However, there is still no specific date for the launch of Au-Spot. NASA has been studying the possibility of using a robot dog like Spot for its missions to Mars, at least since 2018. Now, that dream could come true.
Source: Interesting Engineering
