LASSIE’s robot dog may join astronauts on Mars

When humans eventually set foot on Mars, they may have a four-legged companion by their side. But the dog accompanying them won’t be a canine at all, but a quadruped robot designed to gather samples and keep astronauts on the Red Planet from twisting an ankle. Built with autonomous capability, it will be capable of operating independently of humans. Put another way, the Mars dog will walk off-leash. 

A team of scientists from Oregon State University, the University of Southern California, the University of Pennsylvania, and Texas A&M University tested a prototype of the future Mars robot dog earlier this month at White Sands National Park in New Mexico. Over the course of five days, the robot was tasked with traversing the region’s loose, unpredictable soil, which is meant to mimic the surface of the Red Planet. The trial comes about two years after similar experiments with the same robot on Mount Hood in Oregon, where the terrain also resembles that of the Moon.

Researchers are hopeful that the lessons learned from these two desert excursions will give the robot dog the leg up it needs to join astronauts on future missions to the Moon (and eventually Mars) as a kind of independent sidekick. It would collect samples and alert its human partners when they are approaching unstable or unsafe areas. Fittingly, the robot dog experiments are being called the LASSIE (Legged Autonomous Surface Science in Analog Environments) Project.

A video shared with Popular Science of the dog-bot, shows the petite black-and-white robot dog named Spirit tip-tapping its feet across the vast, sandy landscape. Spirit’s “head” is composed of several cameras placed side by side. The rapid oscillation of its robotic joints kicking up bits of sand produces a high-pitched squeaking sound reminiscent of a Pixar character. Later in the video, the quadruped can be seen working in tandem with a slightly larger, four-wheeled rover.

Researchers test the quadruped robot’s movement and balancing capabilities at White Sands National Park in New Mexico. CREDIT: Sean Nealon/Oregon State University.

“Our group is very committed to putting quadrupeds on the Moon and on Mars,”  Oregon State University robotics researcher Cristina Wilson said in a statement. “It’s the next frontier and takes advantage of the unique capabilities of legged robots.”

Why choose a robot dog?

If and when Spirit’s four-legged successor makes it to the Martian surface, it won’t be the first robot to do so. NASA’s Sojourner rover landed on Mars back in 1997, and was followed seven years later by Spirit and Opportunity. Since then, three more rovers (two from NASA and one from China), along with a small helicopter, have all called the planet home. These are useful, but quadruped robots can go where their wheeled and winged cousins simply can’t.

The robot dog’s four stick-like legs allow it to adapt to different types of terrain and maintain its balance. These legs use what researchers call“proprioceptive sensing, which means the robot can detect slight changes in texture or recognize when one of its feet makes contact with the Martian surface. In other words, the quadruped can “feel” and interpret surface forces, much like a real dog knows when to hop over scalding pavement or uneven, rocky ground. That’s useful for preserving the robot’s durability, but it also means that it can serve as a kind of safety scout, walking ahead of human astronauts and warning them of potential hazards.

Part of the testing conducted this month was aimed at collecting more data to improve the algorithms that help the machine operate autonomously. By using computer vision and machine learning to chart its own paths, the quadruped can (at least in theory), collect samples in a process researchers call  “adaptive sampling. They may also be able to explore areas independently of humans with these new algorithms. That efficiency can significantly increase the amount of scientific research conducted. Even so-called “failures” by the robot during tests are still considered valuable research successes.

“When the robot leg slips on ice or sinks into soft snow, it inspires us to look for new principles and strategies that can push the boundary of human knowledge and enable new technology,” University of South California assistant professor Feifei Qian said in a University of Pennsylvania blog post last year. “We learn and improve from the observed failures.”

Related: [A four-legged ‘Robodog’ is patrolling the Large Hadron Collider]

New Mexico: mimicking mars at home 

Despite claims made by some billionaires to the contrary, getting to Mars isn’t a walk in the park. That makes testing anything expected to one day operate on the Red Planet a serious challenge. Researchers chose White Sands National Park because its active gypsum dune fields have varied sedimentary textures, similar-ish to those on Mars, consisting of loose sand. The area also features a fragile surface crust made up of salt, calcium carbonate, and microbes, providing a varied and complex environment to truly test the robot’s adaptability.

However, one key difference between New Mexico and Mars is the temperature. While temperatures on Mars can hover around negative 81 degrees Fahrenheit, researchers working in White Sands National Park faced sweltering heat waves approaching the triple digits. It was so hot, in fact, that they had to begin their experiments at sunrise and wrap up by late morning. The extreme heat took a toll on the team and posed a risk of frying the robot’s power supply.

While NASA doesn’t have any plans to send a real canine to Mars (at least that we know of), humans’ best friend is still playing a role in the research process. Howard, a German shepherd belonging to Wilson, reportedly showed off his athletic prowess during the Mount Hood experiments, gracefully running and hopping across snow and icy rocks. By studying the way he intuitively navigates those obstacles, researchers can apply those insights to improve the robot dog’s performance.

The end goal is developing a robot dog worthy of the name Lassie. 

 

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