Vehicles and Performance

Unmanned ground vehicles

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Articles: Manned Systems
“AstroAnts” are small robots for inspection and diagnostic tasks on external spacecraft surfaces, both in orbit and on planetary surfaces. They're also the Robotics & Automation Finalist. Read on to learn more.
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Application Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
A trio of small rovers that will explore the Moon in sync with one another are rolling toward launch. NASA JPL’s CADRE rovers will soon map the lunar surface together as a tech demo to show the promise of multirobot missions.
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Briefs: Lighting Technology
RMIT University’s Arnan Mitchell and University of Adelaide’s Dr. Andy Boes led an international team to review lithium niobate’s capabilities and potential applications in the journal Science. The team is working to make navigation systems that help rovers drive on the Moon — where GPS is unable to work — later this decade.
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Articles: RF & Microwave Electronics
The year 2024 will be full of new satellite manufacturing, launches and operations, with major players like Amazon expected to start full-scale deployment of Project Kuiper and strong demand for low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites driving development and launches from the likes of SpaceX and Telesat among others.
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Briefs: Test & Measurement
The Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) will usher in a new era of laser communications.
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Articles: Aerospace
Since the dawn of the space race, the idea of sending humans to Mars has been the subject of aerospace engineering and scientific studies. From the successful flyby of NASA’s Mariner 4 in 1964 to the Perseverance rover in 2020, the missions to Mars have come a long way.
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Application Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
OPTIMISM, the full-scale engineering model of Perseverance, is helping NASA assess the risk of potential driving hazards on Mars.
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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
A new robot developed by Caltech researchers LEO carves out a new type of locomotion somewhere between walking and flying.
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Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
UAVs can land on moving unmanned ground vehicles without GPS.
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Application Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A mobile robot will go to the South Pole of the Moon — with help from radiation-hardened avionics.
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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
The multi-legged robots are capable of maneuvering in challenging environments.
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Application Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Ewellix (Gothenburg, Sweden) has developed a planetary roller screw that's now on Mars.
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Articles: Materials
Perseverance is the first leg of a round trip to Mars.
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Articles: Electronics & Computers
NASA-funded research by Clemson University scientists could lead to the creation of lighter, faster-charging batteries suitable for powering a spacesuit or even a Mars rover.
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Application Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
See how one company reached out to NASA with an offer to develop a custom sensor for the Mars 2020 mission rover.
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Briefs: Motion Control
Complex locomotion techniques enable the rover to climb hills covered with soft granular material.
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Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control
Tech Briefs spoke with NASA’s Keith Comeaux, Deputy Project Chief Engineer, to learn more about the helicopter heading to Mars.
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Articles: Imaging
Perseverance will have the ability to land in more challenging terrain than Curiosity, making more rugged sites eligible as safe landing candidates.
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
These composites could improve how unmanned vehicles dissipate energy.
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Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control
Read our special series on the Mars 2020 mission, featuring interviews with NASA experts and designers of the Perseverance rover.
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Briefs: Motion Control
An upgraded mini robot can leap over obstacles with ease.
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Articles: Motion Control
Smarter, better, faster, less expensive — those words are the mantra of today’s global economy. As organizations seek to streamline operations and do more with less, they...
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INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control
Ants are able to use polarized light and ultraviolet radiation to locate themselves in space. AntBot mimics this ability to explore its environment randomly and go home automatically, without GPS or mapping.
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Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
A technique was developed to quickly teach robots novel traversal behaviors with minimal human oversight. The technique allows mobile robot platforms to navigate autonomously in...
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Application Briefs: Materials
Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OHwww.wpafb.af.mil/afrl Mars rovers are sophisticated, multi-instrumented pieces of equipment that travel over the surface...
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Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Today's crop breeders are trying to boost yields while preparing plants to withstand severe weather and changing climates. To succeed, they must locate the genes for high-yielding, hardy traits in crop plants’...
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Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
An industrial-class excavator was developed for use on the Moon and perhaps on Mars. The model mobility platform uses Ackerman Steering with active drives on all six wheels,...
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Articles: Communications
Technology often takes circuitous paths. A magnetron developed for precision bombing during World War II led to the microwave oven, and a battery-powered drill created for collecting samples...
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Briefs: Software
Program Determines When MRO Observations Span More Than One Spacecraft Sequencing Period
Previously, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) did not allow observations to go beyond the end of a planning period. However, opportunities for observing the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover occur close enough to these boundaries to require the...

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