NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) tested its snake-like EELS robot at a ski resort in Southern California. This snake-like robot is self-propelled and may one day autonomously search for signs of life in the ocean lurking beneath the icy crust of Saturn’s moon Enceladus by traversing the narrow vents on the surface that spew geysers into space.
EELS (Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor) is highly adaptable and can plot safe courses through a variety of terrains including on the Moon, Mars, etc. Whether it be sand, ice, cliff walls, glaciers, underground lava tubes, or craters, the risk-aware robot is prepared for uncertainty and can make decisions on its own in real-time.
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Imagine a car driving autonomously, but there are no stop signs, no traffic signals, not even any roads. The robot has to figure out what the road is and try to follow it. Our focus so far has been on autonomous capability and mobility, but eventually we’ll look at what science instruments we can integrate with EELS.” said Rohan Thakker, the project’s autonomy lead.
