NASA and Caltech Test Steep-Terrain Rover
Engineers from JPL and students at Caltech have designed and tested a versatile, low-mass robot that can rappel off cliffs and travel nimbly over steep and rocky terrain.
PASADENA, Calif. -- Engineers from NASA's Jet Propulsion  Laboratory and students at the California Institute of Technology have designed  and tested a versatile, low-mass robot that can rappel off cliffs, travel  nimbly over steep and rocky terrain, and explore deep craters.This prototype rover, called Axel, might help future robotic  spacecraft better explore and investigate foreign worlds such as Mars. On  Earth, Axel might assist in search-and-rescue operations.A Web video showing an Axel test-run at the JPL Mars yard is  online at:www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=806."Axel extends  our ability to explore terrains that we haven't been able to explore in the  past, such as deep craters with vertically-sloped promontories," said  Axel's principal investigator, Issa A.D. Nesnas, of JPL's robotics and mobility  section. "Also, because Axel is relatively low-mass, a mission may carry a  number of Axel rovers. That would give us the opportunity to be more aggressive  with the terrain we would explore, while keeping the overall risk manageable."The simple and elegant design of Axel, which can operate  both upside down and right side up, uses only three motors: one to control each  of its two wheels and a third to control a lever. The lever contains a scoop to  gather lunar or planetary material for scientists to study, and it also adjusts  the robot's two stereo cameras, which can tilt 360 degrees.Axel's cylindrical body has computing and wireless  communications capabilities and an inertial sensor to operate autonomously. It  also sports a tether that Axel can unreel to descend from a larger lander,  rover or anchor point. The rover can use different wheel types, from large  foldable wheels to inflatable ones, which help the rover tolerate a hard  landing and handle rocky terrain.Nesnas co-leads the  project with Joel Burdick, a mechanical and bioengineering professor at  Caltech, who supervises a handful of Caltech graduate and undergraduate  students working on the rover system. Last fall, the JPL-Caltech team  demonstrated Axel at the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington,  which showcased NASA for the agency's 50th anniversary."Collaboration  with Caltech has been key to the success of this project," Nesnas said.  "The students contributed significantly to the design of the tethered  Axel. Their creative work enabled us to analyze, design and build new wheels,  sampling tools and software. The students also played a key role in  field-testing this robot. Without them, we would not have been able to  accomplish such goals, given our limited resources."JPL began developing  Axel in 1999, in partnership with Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., and  Arkansas Tech University, Russellville, Ark. The Axel project was funded  through NASA's Exploration System Mission Directorate.  Caltech  manages JPL for NASA.More information on  Axel is at:http://www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/systems/system.cfm?System=16and athttp://robotics.caltech.edu/~pablo/axel/home.html.Note to Editors:  B-roll of the Axel test-run at JPL's Mars Yard and sound bites with Axel team  leaders and students will be available on NASA TV. The NASA TV schedule is  online atwww.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/schedule.html. The NASA TV Media Channel is available on MPEG-2 digital C-band signal  accessed via satellite AMC-6, at 72 degrees west longitude, transponder 17C,  4040 MHz, vertical polarization. For digital downlink information for NASA TV's  Media Channel and access to NASA TV's Public Channel on the Web, visithttp://www.nasa.gov/ntv.