Robotics & Automation Finalist - AstroAnt: A Miniature Symbiotic Robotic Serving on the Outside Surfaces of Spacecraft, Rovers, and Landers for Inspection and Diagnostic Tasks

Fangzheng Liu, Nathan Perry, Tobias Roeddiger, Sean Auffinger, Joseph Paradiso, Ariel Ekblaw
MIT Media Lab
Cambridge, MA

Future in-space operations — across low-Earth orbit (LEO), lunar missions, and out to Mars — will heavily leverage robotics to improve systems performance, reduce risk to human crews, and contribute to novel mission capabilities. Robots have long been used for remote operations such as supporting space missions. Expanding beyond large, cost-intensive robotic platforms, this novel approach from the MIT Media Lab proposes spacecraft environment monitoring, both internal and external, with small, low-cost swarm robots.

The “AstroAnts” are small robots for inspection and diagnostic tasks on external spacecraft surfaces, both in orbit and on planetary surfaces. These multifunctional, autonomous, wheeled, robotic swarm units can traverse a wide range of surfaces, sense and interact with their environment, and cover extensive territory.

According to Lead Engineer Fangzheng Liu, the idea for Astro-Ant robots originated from the “Rovable” project by Dr. Artem Dementyev of the Responsive Environments group at the MIT Media Lab. Rovable robots are small, wheeled devices with magnetic wheels that move on clothing to form on-body sensor networks. Dr. Ariel Ekblaw, Principal Investigator for the AstroAnt project and Lunar mission, proposed extending the application to space.

Equipped with magnetic wheels, the robots can move on any ferromagnetic surface and flexible materials in microgravity or zero-gravity environments. “Since spacecraft like the International Space Station are covered with a protective layer called Beta Cloth, we can use a similar robotic platform to build on-body sensor networks for spacecraft, enabling external inspection and sensing. The data collected will help monitor the performance of the spacecraft, rovers, landers, etc. This platform can facilitate future deep space exploration, which will heavily rely on robotic technology for maintenance and even manufacturing,” said Liu.

The team has designed two models of robots for mobility and sensing capability tests in microgravity environments. The size of model 1 is 3.2 cm × 2.5 cm × 2.3 cm and of model 2 is 5.8 cm × 4.3 cm × 3.0 cm. Both models were successfully tested in zero, lunar, and Martian gravity environments across four parabolic flights through the NASA Tech Flights program.

“The main challenge in design and development is the strict weight and size constraints,” said Liu. “Since we are sending something to the Moon, every gram and millimeter matters. Realizing all the necessary functions within such a small body is extremely challenging. There are only a few choices of spacegrade components we can use, and trade-offs must be made because we cannot fit as many functions as we want into such limited space,” he added.

Based on the success of the NASA flight campaign, a further modified AstroAnt robot has been developed and will be deployed to the Lunar South Pole in the Intuitive Machines IM-2 mission in 2025. The AstroAnt robot will be carried by the MAPP-1 rover developed by the Lunar Outpost. This robot will be working on the MAPP-1 rover’s top panel, which is the radiator of the rover’s thermal system. With a thermopile equipped, the AstroAnt robot will move around and do contactless temperature measurements from different positions on the top panel. The data collected will help with monitoring the performance of the rover’s thermal system.

While the current design is just a proof of concept, the team envisions numerous applications for this platform both in space and on Earth. “We aim to leverage its agility, small size, and low cost to explore and inspect places that are hard to reach or dangerous for humans or bulky robots, such as ventilation pipes in buildings. With a modular design, each AstroAnt robot can carry different sensor payloads for various missions,” said Liu.

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