Stanford team developing spiky robot "hedgehogs" to explore Phobos
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The Phobos Surveyor and robot hedgehogs
The robot "hedgehogs" would be launched from the mother spacecraft Phobos Surveyor
The hedgehogs rely on three rotating discs set at right angles to one another inside their shell for movement
Article Summary
Robot hedgehogs on the moons of Mars may sound like the title of a B-grade sci-fi movie, but that is what Stanford University is working on. Marco Pavone, an assistant professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and his team are developing spherical robots called “hedgehogs” that are about half a meter (1.6 ft) wide and covered in spikes to better cope with rolling and hopping across the surface of the Martian moon Phobos with its very low gravity.
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