With the support of the High-tech Research and Development Program (dubbed 863 Program), SIA researchers have made progress in developing modular reconfigurable robots for lunar exploration.
Like in other space exploration, robots for lunar probes are both expensive and at high risk. To cope with the problem, developing modular reconfigurable robots become a major option for the mission.
Modular reconfigurable robotics is an approach to building robots for various complex tasks. Instead of designing a different mechanical robot exclusively for each task, people just build many copies of simple modules. The module don't do much by itself, but when putting many of them together you get a system that can do complicated things. In fact, a modular robot can even reconfigure itself ― change its shape by moving its modules around ― to meet the demands of different tasks on various working environments.
In cooperation with colleagues from Japan's Tokyo Institute of Technology, researchers from the SIA have score significant achievements in the studies of reconfigurable robots.
The robotic series are an array of independently-controlled, concurrent and reconfigurable secondary robots, each consisting of an arm for carrying objects, collecting samples, surveying and mapping, and a triangular wheel for independent walking and skipping obstacles, said a spokesman for the Shenyang institute.
These secondary robots are like wheels of the moon rover, which is also made up of a primary robot, the bodywork of the vehicle, said the CAS spokesman.
"The system will begin working when arms attached to all the secondary robots are linked to the primary robot, and a precise positioning system will help the whole system achieve concurrent and automatic operation," he said. "The secondary robots can be sent to different missions such as collecting data or removing an obstacle and automatically return to the main system."
The reconfigurable system will play a leading role in China's future explorations to the moon or other planets, he said.
The Chinese government has also announced its plan to launch a satellite to orbit the moon by 2007 as part of China's three-stage lunar project. Moreover, the country plans to land an unmanned rover on the Moon for collecting soil samples from lunar surface around 2020.