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Completed TRL 5 (started at 2, targeting 5)
PUFFER—the Pop-Up, Flat-Folding Explorer Robot—is a low-mass, low-volume, low-cost rover platform for exploring extreme terrains. Together, many PUFFERs can collaborate to overcome challenges too risky for a single rover to take on. A-PUFFER will enable the PUFFERs to operate autonomously to achieve this objective.
In addition to enabling applications that are not achievable via a single rover (e.g., distributed measurements), multi-rover systems gain some resilience though not only hardware redundancy, but autonomous functions to achieve graceful degradation through the reallocation of resources. Consequently, multi-rover systems can also be more responsive to changes in the mission or unanticipated anomalies or whenever there is significant uncertainty.
This is early/mid-stage (TRL 5) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.
None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.