MMAE Seminar: Gripping Robot Feet

Armour College of Engineering's Mechanical Materials & Aerospace Engineering department will welcome Dr. Aaron Parness to campus on Wednesday, April 2, to present his lecture "Gripping Robot Feet: From Climbing Robots to Microgravity Mobility."

Dr. Parness works in the Extreme Environment Robotics Group at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. An expert in methods of prototype manufacturing, Dr. Parness has experience in microfabrication, polymer prototyping, and traditional machining (both manual and CNC). He has also worked on mechanical part design and mechatronic systems during his career.

Abstract:

JPL has successfully landed and operated four rovers on the surface of Mars using a 6-wheeled rocker-bogie architecture for mobility. Future NASA missions to other celestial bodies like asteroids and comets, or to more challenging terrain on the Moon and Mars like crater walls and caves, will require more advanced mobility. This talk will explore various technologies that allow robots to grip their environment, enabling access to extreme terrain. Specifically, the talk will present LEMUR 2B, the world’s first rock climbing robot, the DROP-family of wheeled climbing robots, and gecko adhesive grippers for mobility on manmade surfaces like the exterior of the International Space Station.