NASA's JPL Designs Snake Robot to Explore Diverse Terrains, Search for Evidence of Life

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is developing a new robot that is versatile enough to explore different terrains. The machine is designed to search for evidence of life in space.

NASA's JPL's Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor (EELS)

NASA's JPL is creating a snake robot to explore the universe and search for evidence of life. The snake robot is called exobiology extant life surveyor (EELS).

The scientists behind the new robot designed it to be versatile and smart. Dr. Hiro Ono, principal investigator, NASA/JPL, told BBC that if one looks around the solar system, there are many holes, caves, and cracks. They aim for the robot to explore those places and reach the regions where no robots have ever gone before. Their main target is the vent systems on a small icy moon of Saturn called Enceladus.

Dr. Mathew Robinson, project manager at NASA/JPL, added that they copied how the snake moved throughout its terrain when they designed the robot. They want to achieve a platform that could explore any place. They want to send it to the Moon, down into lava tubes on the Moon, or craters where it's not safe for astronauts to explore.

They have tested the robots inside the Athabasca glacier and Mount Meager volcano in Canada. Ono said some scientists suspect that there could be life in those places. He clarified that he wasn't talking about giant octopuses or whales but microbes waiting to be discovered.

ALSO READ: NASA Big Idea Challenge Winner Designs Snakebot Cobra to Navigate The Moon For Artemis Mission

Snakebot Cobra to Explore Moon For Artemis Mission

NASA's 2022 Big Idea Challenge was about extreme terrain access for mobility platforms. The participants designed various robots, and the winner was a snake robot called Cobra (Crater Observing Bio-inspired Rolling Articulator).

Matthew Schroeter, the team's lead, who graduated from Northeastern in 2022 and currently works at Honeybee Robotics, said the inspiration for the design was the snake's sidewinding movement and friction of slopes.

They considered how regolith and sand share the same properties - both are very porous. They thought of how a snake would explore those terrains.

A miniature neutron spectrometer that can measure variations in neutron energy on the Moon's surface and, consequently, identify hydrogen and, by extension, water deep within Shackleton Crater is planned to be housed in Cobra's tail. The researchers also included radar sensors and an inertial measurement unit in the design of the robot, enabling ground-based operators to track Cobra's movement, speed, and location as it rolls and winds around.

Cobra outshined the six other groups when it latched itself seamlessly into a circle and smoothly propelled itself down a steep hill. It wound through the sagebrush and successfully maneuvered out of the thorny brush.

The team successfully demonstrated all of Cobra's modes of locomotion and won the Artemis Award, the competition's highest honor.

Most team members are undergraduates and are still active in the space exploration club. The team's faculty advisor, Northeastern engineering professor Alireza Ramezani, revealed that a group of Ph.D. candidates is researching the autonomy needed for controlling the Cobra system.