Tag: Rover

NASA has shown off a concept for a slick, futuristic Mars Rover. It has a shiny black body and huge wheels. In fact, it looks a lot like the Batmobile. Also like a toy truck that you might have seen in the 1980s.

NASA calls its RASSOR 2.0 rover “a blue collar robot.” That’s because it gets down and dirty and is tough as nails. It digs, it climbs, it flips over. It’s a real workhorse. It is an awesome design and it is fun to watch it in action.

Last year we checked out Misha Larkin’s remote-controlled Curiosity-inspired rover. He’s been improving his model’s design and recently shared what he has so far. Misha’s earlier design had repurposed parts such as the shock absorbers, which were made of syringes.

A couple of months ago, we checked out Sergey Grishchenko’s DIY scale model of the Curiosity rover. Michael Larkin’s Moon One is a very similar remote-controlled rover, but he optimized it for agility, maneuverability and mischief.

Hardware and software developer Sergey Grishchenko made this small remote-controlled model of NASA’s Curiosity rover from scratch. Sergey designed and printed most of the toy’s non-electronic parts, including the wheels and the claw arm. Sergey used a LinkIt One computer to power his mini Curiosity.

Ticks are nasty. Actually, I think all bugs are nasty – but ticks are extra disgusting since they suck on your blood. They are also responsible for transmitting many diseases, some fatal. A team of researchers at the Virginia Military Institute have designed a robot that kills these blood suckers.

Carnegie Mellon roboticist Dr. William Whittaker collaborated with Astrobiotic Technology to create a solar-powered unmanned rover that will revisit the Apollo landing site in 2011. The robotic explorer will be sent to look at the materials left behind by the astronauts to see how the lunar environment has affected them.