Aircraft that can launch ballistically and convert to autonomous, free-flying drones have applications in many areas such as emergency response, defense, and space exploration, where they can gather critical situational data using onboard sensors. This paper presents a ballistically-launched, autonomously-stabilizing multirotor prototype (SQUID - Streamlined Quick Unfolding Investigation Drone) with an onboard sensor suite, autonomy pipeline, and passive aerodynamic stability. We demonstrate autonomous transition from passive to vision-based, active stabilization, confirming the multirotor's ability to autonomously stabilize after a ballistic launch in a GPS-denied environment.

The operation of multirotors in crowded environments requires a highly reliable takeoff method, as failures during takeoff can damage more valuable assets nearby. The addition of a ballistic launch system imposes a deterministic path for the multirotor to prevent collisions with its environment, as well as increases the multirotor's range of operation and allows deployment from an unsteady platform. In addition, outfitting planetary rovers or entry vehicles with such deployable multirotors has the potential to greatly extend the data collection capabilities of a mission. A proof-of-concept multirotor aircraft has been developed, capable of transitioning from a ballistic launch configuration to a fully controllable flight configuration in midair after launch. The transition is accomplished via passive unfolding of the multirotor arms, triggered by a nichrome burn wire release mechanism. The design is 3D printable, launches from a three-inch diameter barrel, and has sufficient thrust to carry a significant payload. The system has been fabricated and field tested from a moving vehicle up to 50mph to successfully demonstrate the feasibility of the concept and experimentally validate the design's aerodynamic stability and deployment reliability. SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL Videos of the experiments: https://youtu.be/sQuKJfllyRM.

This paper introduces a new four-limbed robot, LEMUR 3, that has demonstrated climbing on cliff faces and smooth glass. Each limb on the robot consists of seven identical actuators in a serial chain. Each limb terminates in a single axis force sensor that allows various end effectors to be mounted and connected to the robot's power and communication system. Microspine grippers were used for climbing the rocky surface and gecko adhesive grippers were used for the glass solar panels. All other hardware and much of the software was common for the two demonstrations. The robot's mechanical, electrical, and software systems, various gripping devices, and field demonstrations are described. Limbed mobility is of interest to JPL and NASA because of its potential to access extreme terrain, including that on Mars and in microgravity environments.

JPL has developed the worlds first rock climbing robot. This video presents climbing trials at vertical, overhanging, and inverted angles, and a zero-g drill for astronauts.

Lemur IIa, the second-generation Limbed Excursion Mechanical Utility Robot, is a six-limbed walking robot developed at NASA' s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Lemur is distinct in part because each limb was designed be used for both walking and manipulation. It is intended to be a prototype of a dexterous, operationally flexible robot for on-orbit assembly, inspection, and maintenance. This video illustrates some of the current capabilities of this platform. Demonstrations included are omnidirectional walking without rotating the robot, body pose control from a fixed stance, visually guided docking with a recharging station, and manipulation and inspection with multiple tools (on multiple limbs). These capabilities represent a sample of the current tasks Lemur is performing. Please see www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov for more information and demonstrations about Lemur.

Lemur IIa, the second-generation Limbed Excursion Mechanical Utility Robot, is a six-limbed walking robot developed at NASA' s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Lemur is distinct in part because each limb was designed be used for both walking and manipulation. It is intended to be a prototype of a dexterous, operationally flexible robot for on-orbit assembly, inspection, and maintenance. This video illustrates Lemur completing an autonomous assembly task. Lemur, as part of a robotic team, is helping to assemble a structure. In this demonstration, Lemur autonomously walks through a truss, locates a task board, and tightens a bolt on that board. These demonstrations represent a sample of the current tasks Lemur is performing. Please see www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov for more information and demonstrations about Lemur.

The U.S. National Vision for Space Exploration calls for a sustained and affordable human and robotic program to explore the solar system, starting with a human return to the Moon by 2020. Key to this vision is the development of robotic systems for site preparation, habitat construction, deploying infrastructure, and repair in space and on Lunar and planetary surfaces. This paper discusses a system of systems approach to the development of these capabilities, and includes some preliminary experimental studies of multi-robot surface construction operations with the JPL robotic construction crew (RCC).

We have developed a cliff robot that is capable of descending a cliff and autonomously navigating to way-points on the cliff wall. This aggressive mobility system consists of an ensemble of three tethered robots, which cooperate under tight coordinated control and collective state estimation. The distributed task is described as a behavior network, which consists of a network of controllers spread across the robots and which interact through communication links to achieve a collective control objective. Fielded experimental results show that the cliff robot is capable of navigating to designated way-points on a cliff wall using the proposed control scheme.

The objective of the Robot Work Crew (RWC) project is to investigate key challenges in multi-robot coordination when performing tightly coupled coordination tasks such as transporting and handling of long objects on challenging planetary terrain. In this paper, we focus on tightly coupled coordination of two Mars rovers transporting a long payload. We have developed practical decentralized compliancy control and coordinated comply control algorithms that effectively address compliant control for compliantly coupled multiple mobile robots. Experiments at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, CA of two Mars rovers carry an extended payload over uneven, natural terrain are used to validate and illustrate the approach.

The paper describes a new sun sensor for absolute heading detection developed for the Field Integrated, Design and Operations (FIDO) rover. The FIDO rover is an advanced technology rover that is a terrestrial prototype of the rovers NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) plans to send to Mars in 2003. Our goal was to develop a sun sensor that fills the current cost/performance gap, uses the power of subpixel interpolation, makes use of current hardware on the rover, and demands very little computational overhead. The need for a sun sensor on planetary rovers lies in the fact that current means of estimating the heading of planetary rovers involves integration of noisy rotational-speed measurements. This noise causes error to accumulate and grow rapidly. Moreover, the heading error affects the estimate of the x and y position of the rover. More importantly, incremental odometry heading estimation is only reliable over relatively short distances. There is an urgent need to develop a new heading-detection sensor for long traverses [for example, 100 m per Sol (Martian Day)], as requested for future Mars mission. Results of a recent FIDO field trial at Black Rock Summit in Central Nevada and several operations readiness tests at the JPL MarsYard using the sun sensor have demonstrated threefold to fourfold improvement in the heading estimation of the rover compared to incremental odometry.