CliffBot May Be Cleanest Robot On Earth
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Tuesday, 8 of September , 2009 at 4:00 am
Keeping robots clean is a big deal for NASA. After all, any bacteria you accidentally take with you to another planet could potentially screw up any scientific discoveries, or (worst case) decide that they like their new digs, multiply out of control, evolve, develop a death ray, and then come back to Earth and kill us all.
To keep this from happening, NASA is practicing its techniques for robot sterilization (which still doesn’t keep this from happening). The robot in the picture is Cliffbot, which NASA took to Svalbard to do some exploring. Using a seven step cleaning procedure involving distilled water and hydrogen peroxide, they managed to keep Cliffbot’s sample collectors completely free of biological contamination.
Cliffbot is designed for planets like Mars, which have lots of exciting craters and cliffs and volcanoes that are generally inaccessible to wheeled robots. By using two anchorbots (you can see them in the pic above), the 18 pound Cliffbot is able to descend and ascend rocky slopes of up to 85 degrees. The little axle robot that we wrote about last year works in generally the same way, but Cliffbot has the added advantage of being able to work in a team with other robots in other scenarios like cooperative construction projects.
[ Sample-Return Rover ] VIA [ Popular Mechanics ]
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Category: Space
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