Servo - April 2013

Robytes by Jeff and Jenn Eckert

Diggin' It at NASA

The standard formula for a NASA robot is big, intricate, and loaded with more scientific instruments than the average physics lab. The agency ( www.nasa.gov), however, has also been developing a prototype diggerbot that's such a primordial worker that you could almost have a beer and talk sports with it. The machine — called the Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot (RASSOR, pronounced "razor") — is basically designed to toil for years on end with its twin diggers, scraping through layers of lunar soil.

RASSOR accomplishes this via counter-rotating bucket drums that give one end enough traction to stay in place while the other end digs about 30 cm into the soil. Its main mission would be to pull water and ice out of the dirt, and transform the mined chemicals into usable amounts of rocket fuel or breathing air for astronauts. This would require it to operate 16 hours per day for five years. With the drums positioned above the bot's main body, it stands about 2. 5 ft tall.

A mission-ready version would weigh about 100 lb. According to the RASSOR team, a new improved RASSOR II should be ready for testing early next year. (See the article in this issue by Kevin Berry that talks about RASSOR in more detail.)

RASSOR climbs a hill in a test at Kennedy Space Center.

Photo credit: NASA.

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Korean anti-bird robotic ground vehicle protects airports.

Literally for the Birds

It's no secret that animals straying into the path of airplanes constitute a serious problem. Just ask US Airways Capt. "Sully" Sullenberger, who was forced into the Hudson River by a flock of geese. According to an FAA study, reported strikes (97 percent of which involved birds) increased from 1,804 in 1990 to 10,083 in 2011.

During that period, the related costs in civil aviation alone came to an estimated $481 million. So, maybe a new autonomous anti-bird vehicle developed by the Korean Atomic Energy Group and LIG Nex1 (an LG subsidiary) isn't as loopy as it admittedly looks.

The six-wheeler is almost the size of a small car and weighs in at 1.2 tons. It's bird scaring equipment includes a sound system that emits bird predator noises at 100 dB, built-in cameras that can track a 12 inch bird at up to 330 yd, and green lasers designed to scare the flying nuisances away.