http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-016

NASA and Caltech Test Steep-Terrain Rover
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
February 04, 2009

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=16 and at
http://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 at
www.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, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv .

Rhea Borja 818-354-0850
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Rhea.R.Borja{at}jpl.nasa.gov

2009-016
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