Highly Extendable Vine Robots for Planetary Exploration and Sampling

As human activity on the Moon and Mars looks to surge in the coming years, there is an increasing need among the planetary science community to further understand features of these environments, such as topology and material composition. This work seeks to develop a highly extendable soft robot, called a Vine Robot, that is capable of obtaining geological and contextual information through imaging, proprioceptive sensing, and in-situ sample acquisition over long distances and within confined spaces. This concept looks to expand the capabilities of past and current extraplanetary robotic systems by leveraging compliant material construction and high extension capabilities to explore unstructured treacherous environments on the surface and subsurface of these spatial bodies. Additionally, it will be capable of acquiring and transporting valuable samples for analysis. While Vine robots have been explored for earth-based applications, there are many significant limitations to their capabilities, such as tool attachment, material robustness, actuation, and navigation, that have yet to be explored. The work will focus on developing an innovative soft-rigid hybrid body and end-effector design, modeling non-linear material buckling behavior and control framework, and implementing it into a final functioning system. To complete the proposed objectives, the developmental work will rely heavily on computational modeling, iterative prototyping, and field tests. This effort will open the door for future applications of highly extendable and compliant mechanisms for space exploration.

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