Minirovers as Test Beds for Robotic and Sensor-Web Concepts

The figure depicts a proposed reconfigurable miniature exploratory robotic vehicle (mini- rover) that would serve as a versatile prototype in the development of exploratory robots and “smart”-sensor systems that contain them. For example, minirovers could serve as nodes of sensor webs — networks of spatially distributed autonomous cooperating robots — that have been contemplated for use in exploring large areas of terrain. [The concept of such networks was reported in more detail in “Sensor Webs” (NPO- 20616), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 23, No. 10 (October 1999), page 80.]