Category: NASA Robots

NASA JPL Robotic Microspines

Robotic Microspines by Nasa Neo Gripper System 11064

NASA JPL researchers present a 250-mm diameter omni-directional anchor that uses an array of claws with suspension flexures, called microspines, designed to grip rocks on the surfaces of asteroids and comets and to grip the cliff faces and lava tubes of Mars. Part of the paper, “Gravity-Independent Mobility and Drilling on Natural Rock Using Microspines,” by A. Parness et al., presented at the 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.