Overview

The project will develop methods for teams of robots to jointly overcome environmental hazards on the Moon by attaching to each other to form larger and more stable, maneuverable structures. The robots will use their interactions with the ground to form a map of safe and risky terrain, attach to each other as support when the ground traversal risk is high, move in a coordinated fashion once joined, and, once the maneuver has been successfully completed, separate to continue their original individual missions.

Objectives

The TRUSSES project will develop algorithms that provide robots with two main capabilities: 1) estimate robot-to-regolith interactions in order to plan safe maneuvers, and 2) plan truss formations and coordinated motions for robots to push and pull each other to safe locations. The system will be evaluated to verify risk estimation, risk avoidance, risk mitigation, and recovery from failure.

Current Personnel

• Rachel Holladay (MEAM Postdoc)
• Shivangi Misra (ESE PhD)
• William Hoganson (ROBO Staff)
• Eric Wang (CIS Undergrad)
• Lori Brown (CIS Undergrad)
• Neha Peddinti (CIS Undergrad)
• Wilson Hu (CIS Undergrad)
• Benjamin Aziel (MEAM Master's)
• Paul Young (MEAM Master's)

Acknowledgments

The work is supported by NASA’s Lunar Surface Technology Research (LuSTR) 2023 program. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of this organization.