🚀 go-pugleaf

>hagerman@ece.cmu.edu (John Hagerman) writes:
>: There has been some discussion about the tradeoffs between using one
>: large robot and many small robots for planetary exploration.  Has the
>: Erebus experiment changed the opinion of anyone here?

In article <1993Jan10.131539.21053@n1gva> fcf@n1gva (F. C. Floberg) writes:
>I wonder about 'blending' the two philosiphies... Imagine that you had
>one large, agile, and reasonably intelligent robot, and say, six or so
>smaller less sophisticated ones all linked together via some sort of
>network (on a radio link maybe?).

You have "hit the nail on the head". Each type of robotic system has
both advantages and disadvantages which might satisfy some mission
requirements but not others. This is an intelligent compromise.

Two years ago, I worked at the Space Exploration Initiative Planet 
Surface Systems office and performed feasibility studies about the 
kinds of robotic systems which were proposed for the Mars missions.
I had no vested interest in any specific technology, and was amased
when the technology brokers came racing out of the research centers 
and universities, trying to convince NASA to consider their robotic
systems. As you would expect, all of the systems we considered met 
some of the requirements, but no single system could meet all of the 
requirements. It makes sense to have several different robotic 
systems. 

The idea of multiple specialized robotic systems for Lunar/Mars
exploration is supported by two general guidelines: 1) decoupling,
so that if one system performing one part of the mission fails, it
does not prevent other systems from completing other mission goals,
and 2) redundancy, so that if one system fails, another systems can 
take its place.

Oh! I forgot about the fact that we need a really big budget, and a
launch vehicle capable of getting all this equipment there. Maybe
we can live with just one tiny robot ... 
:)


-- 
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Philip Lee Graves, Lockheed-ESC, Houston, TX        
graves@arabia.jsc.nasa.gov 
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