![\"Exobiology](\"https:\/\/scitechdaily.com\/images\/Exobiology-Extant-Life-Surveyor-EELS-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nIllustration of the Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor (EELS) idea. This versatile, snake-like robotic is being designed to autonomously discover uncharted terrains in house and on Earth with out real-time human enter. Credit score NASA\/JPL-CalTech<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n A flexible robotic that will autonomously map, traverse, and discover beforehand inaccessible locations is being put to the check at NASA<\/span>\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.<\/strong><\/p>\n How do you create a robot that can go places no one has ever seen before \u2013 on its own, without real-time human input? A team at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory that\u2019s creating a snake-like robot for traversing extreme terrain is taking on the challenge with the mentality of a startup: Build quickly, test often, learn, adjust, repeat.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Called EELS<\/a> (short for Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor), the self-propelled, autonomous robot was inspired by a desire to look for signs of life in the ocean hiding below the icy crust of Saturn<\/span>\u2019s moon Enceladus<\/a> by descending narrow vents in the surface that spew geysers into space<\/a>. Although testing and development continue, designing for such a challenging destination has resulted in a highly adaptable robot. EELS could pick a safe course through a wide variety of terrain on Earth, the Moon, and far beyond, including undulating sand and ice, cliff walls, craters too steep for rovers, underground lava tubes, and labyrinthine spaces within glaciers.<\/p>\n Team members from JPL test a snake robot called EELS at a ski resort in the Southern California mountains in February. Designed to sense its environment, calculate risk, travel, and gather data without real-time human input, EELS could eventually explore destinations throughout the solar system. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \u201cIt has the capability to go to locations where other robots can\u2019t go. Though some robots are better at one particular type of terrain or other, the idea for EELS is the ability to do it all,\u201d said JPL<\/span>\u2019s Matthew Robinson, EELS project manager. \u201cWhen you\u2019re going places where you don\u2019t know what you\u2019ll find, you want to send a versatile, risk-aware robot that\u2019s prepared for uncertainty \u2013 and can make decisions on its own.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The project team began building the first prototype in 2019 and has been making continual revisions. Since last year, they\u2019ve been conducting monthly field tests and refining both the hardware and the software that allows EELS to operate autonomously. In its current form, dubbed EELS 1.0, the robot weighs about 220 pounds (100 kilograms) and is 13 feet (4 meters) long. It\u2019s composed of 10 identical segments that rotate, using screw threads for propulsion, traction, and grip. The team has been trying out a variety of screws: white, 8-inch-diameter (20-centimeter-diameter) 3D-printed plastic screws for testing on looser terrain, and narrower, sharper black metal screws for ice.<\/p>\n EELS is tested in the sandy terrain of JPL\u2019s Mars Yard in April. Engineers repeatedly test the snake robot across a variety of terrain, including sand, snow, and ice. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/p>\n <\/div>\n The robot has been put to the test in sandy, snowy, and icy environments, from the Mars Yard at JPL<\/a> to a \u201crobot playground\u201d created at a ski resort in the snowy mountains of Southern California, even at a local indoor ice rink.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a different philosophy of robot development than traditional spacecraft, with many quick cycles of testing and correcting,\u201d said Hiro Ono, EELS principal investigator at JPL. \u201cThere 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\u2019s what we\u2019re doing now.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n