Nasa has made a tiny origami inspired companion called Puffer for the next Mars rover

Nasa has made a tiny robot capable of folding itself and exploring places that are too dangerous for Rovers to go to. The origami inspired robot can explore the surface of the planet in tandem with the Rover, allowing Nasa to do twice the science with the same amount of exploration. The robot is called Pop-Up Flat Folding Explorer Robot (PUFFER), and was developed by Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. See it in action here:

The Puffer robot originally stared as an experiment in origami, but the Nasa engineers saw the potential of such a small and flexible explorer, and gave it advanced capabilities through circuitry that is integrated with its body. It can fold its wheels on demand to get into tiny cracks, climb forty five degree slopes, drop into craters, investigate overhangs, and crawl into ledges. Parts of Puffer are 3D printed, and multiple Puffers can be stacked on top of one another and integrated into a rover.

The Puffer bot being field tested in Antartica.

The Puffer bot has been field tested extensively for more than a year in extreme conditions such as the Mojave Desert in California and Mt Erebus in Antarctica.

Apart from applications in space, the tiny robot that can easily fit into a backpack can potentially be used by geologists on Earth as well. Carolyn Parcheta, a JPL scientist who uses robots to explore volcanoes said “Having something that’s as portable as a compass or a rock hammer means you can do science on the fly”.

More information on this tiny and flexible robot is available on the Nasa web site.

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