NASA has developed an AI-powered robot that searches for alien lifeforms in its quest to find hospitable territory in outer space and galactic signs of life.
While scientists investigate how to colonise Mars, icy moons in the Milky Way such as Jupiter’s Europa and Saturn’s Enceladus, have also been earmarked as possible hot property. These moons, dubbed “ocean worlds”, are made up of mostly ice and are thought to have vast oceans of flowing water beneath their frozen surface layer.
The space agency has begun several initiatives that will see robotic alien hunters comb the surfaces of these ocean worlds largely independent of human direction.
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(Image: Getty Images/Stocktrek Images)
Robots used in these initial missions to the galaxy’s ocean worlds must be able to operate autonomously due to the long communication lags and blackouts with Earth, harsh surface environments and limited battery life, according to NASA.
In 2018, NASA launched a programme that takes the advancements made in AI technologies, such as generative AI, machine learning and causal reasoning, and utilises them in their development of their space explorations.
It sponsored the development of the physical Ocean Worlds Lander Autonomy Testbed (OWLAT) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and the virtual Ocean Worlds Autonomy Testbed for Exploration, Research, and Simulation (OceanWATERS) at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California.
(Image: NASA)
Two further initiatives, the Autonomous Robotics Research for Ocean Worlds (ARROW) programme, and the Concepts for Ocean worlds Life Detection Technology (COLDTech) programme saw six research teams, based out of universities and companies, develop autonomous solutions that could be used the OWLAT project.
Both ARROW and COLDTech are now complete and have addressed many of the challenges of autonomous ocean world exploration.
OWLAT simulates a spacecraft lander, aided by a robotic arm, which can be used for surface missions to an ocean world body.
(Image: NASA)
It is designed to operate in a low gravity environment, and its robotic arm can be used for sampling and scientific interactions with the environment. It also has camera that is mounted ted on a pan-and-tilt unit, which is used for perception. Control algorithms enable the contraption to demonstrate dynamic behaviour.
The team also developed a set of tools and instruments that can be used to cary out scientific task and that can be mounted on to the end of the robot’s arm by a quick-connect-disconnect mechanism.