NASA's latest tech investments include shapeshifters and biobots

It wants machines that can explore many corners of the Solar System.

Jon Fingas, @jonfingas for Engadget/Space

NASA is no stranger to backing unusual technology if it'll help with exploring the cosmos, and its latest move is proof of that adventurous mindset. The administration has invested in 25 "early-stage" tech proposals that could improve both human and robotic exploration, and some of them are particularly inventive. The Shapeshifter concept you see above, for instance, envisions a horde of robots that combine into different forms to explore virtually every surface on Saturn's moon Titan. It could form an aircraft for high-altitude missions, a ball on the ground or a torpedo for under-liquid expeditions.

Another proposal, Biobot, would offload some of an astronauts' life support and consumables to a companion robot tethered by an umbilical system. While it might seem disconcerting to trust your survival on a hostile world to a robot, the machine could let explorers last for days before returning to base. They could even use the mechanized helper to haul gear and communicate with people back on Earth.

Other projects include Marsbee (a swarm of flying robots that would assist Mars rovers), SPARROW (a steam-propelled robot for exploring oceans) and PROCSIMA (beamed propulsion for interstellar missions).

The initial investments dole out $125,000 each over the space of nine months to help determine the feasibility of the concepts. If the projects are viable, the teams can apply for a second phase to further develop their work. We'd expect only some of these concepts to make the initial cut, let alone reach real-world use, but they illustrate NASA's thinking -- it's willing to try oddball ideas if they solve problems more effectively than conventional technology.

Source: NASA

Shapeshifters from Science Fiction to Science Fact: Globetrotting from Titan's Rugged Cliffs to its Deep Seafloors

Aliakbar Aghamohammadi

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

Shapeshifter is a novel system concept for all-access and cross-domain mobility on bodies with atmospheres. The proposed robotic platform is capable of mobility across domains including flying in the atmosphere, rolling on a smooth surface, navigating subsurface voids (ex. caves), floating on a lake surface and propelling under an ocean. Shapeshifter is a flying amphibious robot (FAR). It is comprised of smaller robotic units (each referred to as a cobot) which combine to shapeshift into different mobility modes. Each cobot is extremely simple with minimal design consisting of a few propellers as actuators. Shapeshifter can morph into a ball that rolls on the surface, a flight array that can fly & hover above-surface and move in subsurface voids, and a torpedo-like structure to swim under-liquid efficiently, among other mobility modes. In addition to all-access, cross-domain mobility, shapeshifter morphs into other functional systems to carry out a diverse set of tasks. Examples include transporting large and heavy objects, traversing long distances with minimal power consumption, creating communication networks to communicate to surface from deep hard-to-access areas.