Robots like these could be what we needed to explore Titan

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In space exploration, robots do most of the work. This trend will continue as we send more and more missions to the surfaces of the worlds in the solar system. But for robots to be effective in the harsh environments we need to explore – like Titan, Saturn's moon – we need better robots.

A new robot being developed by NASA could be the next step in robotic exploration.

Titan, the moon of Saturn, is on the list of potential exploration targets of any global scientist. But any mission to Titan will face an unparalleled environment: freezing temperatures, cryovolcanoes, caves, lakes and seas – and rain – liquid hydrocarbons. In this environment, a mobile MSL Curiosity style would struggle to cope.

NASA, an agency always looking to the future, is working on something that could meet the challenges of Titan: a robot with a changing form composed of several smaller robots that can self-assemble.

In a dive of practicality, they call him Shapeshifter.

Shapeshifter is not a robot, but several. They call them "cobots" and individual cobots can fly, roll on the ground and swim submerged. This makes Shapeshifter more apt to explore Titan, the only other world in the solar system to have a liquid on its surface.

In the illustration of this artist showing how Shapeshifter could work on Titan, the robot divides into individual robots that can investigate a waterfall in the air. Image Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Marilynn Flynn
In the illustration of this artist showing how Shapeshifter could work on Titan, the robot divides into individual robots that can investigate a waterfall in the air. Image Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Marilynn Flynn

Ali Agha, a robotics technologist, is the senior researcher at Shapeshifter at JPL. In a press release, he said: "We have very limited information on the composition of the surface Rocky lands, methane lakes, cryovolcans – we potentially have all of these, but we do not know for sure. So we thought about how to create a versatile system that can cross different types of terrain, but also compact enough to launch on a rocket. "

The team behind Shapeshifter includes researchers from Stanford and Cornell Universities. When they developed the concept of a robot to assemble made up of smaller robots, they named them "cobots." When the individual cobots meet, the prototype rolls to the surface like a kind of big hamster wheel. When the mission requires it, each cobot can separate at all and fly or swim to its target. This is at least what is envisioned in this prototype 3D printing tested at the JPL.

Shapeshifter's current tested version is semi-autonomous, but if the idea materializes, it will have to self-assemble autonomously, without waiting for individual instructions from the Earth. With advances in artificial intelligence and robotics, this is probably the corner.

An illustration of the small robots that form Shapeshifter. Nicknamed "cobots", they each have a propeller to fly and can combine to form a sphere, rolling on the ground to save energy. Image Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech

Shapeshifter is being developed as part of NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. NIAC provides staggered funding for advanced and visionary concepts, to take futuristic ideas and feed them with practical sense. NIAC is behind the Titan submarine, the Triton Hopper and other projects.

NASA's innovative advanced concepts (NIAC) are also behind the Titan submarine (left) and the Triton Hopper (right). Image Credits: Left: NASA. Right: NASA / S. Olesen

Although Shapeshifter is for the moment only a conceptual machine printed in 3D, it clearly indicates the direction taken by robotic exploration. This approach is versatile and is ideal for exploring distant places such as Titan. In addition to this multi-bot versatility, a type of integrated redundancy is possible: if a cobot malfunctions or is unusable for any reason, it will not necessarily threaten the entire mission.

Shapeshifter would not be alone on Titan. This would be part of a broader mission design that includes a mother ship. The mother ship would be on the surface and could serve as a source of energy for Shapeshifter. Titan's atmosphere being so dense and foggy and so far from the Sun, a mission to Titan would probably be powered by a radioisotope heat generator (RTG). Small cobots would likely be battery powered and recharged with RTG refueling.

But the smaller cobots would also support the mothership. The atmosphere of Titan being so dense, the flight is easier than here. Lead investigator Ali Agha said the cobots could work together to lift the mothership and transport it to new locations. This would only contribute to the versatility of Shapeshifter.

"It's common for some of the hardest-to-reach places to be the most interesting from a scientific point of view, because they're perhaps the youngest or are in a poorly characterized area in orbit," said Jason Hofgartner, Manager JPL. scientist for Shapeshifter. "The remarkable versatility of Shapeshifter provides access to all these scientifically compelling places."

Agha calculates that 10 cobots could easily lift a landing gear the size of a Huygens (about 3 meters wide) and gently carry it to different places.

In this illustration, the Dragonfly drone helicopter is descending to the surface of Titan. Image: NASA
NASA's dragonfly mission to Titan will take advantage of the thick moon atmosphere to travel to different locations. In this illustration, the Dragonfly drone helicopter is descending to the surface of Titan. Image: NASA

NASA has already announced a mission to Titan with its Dragonfly rotorcraft. The dragonfly can not swim, but it can fly to different places and take measurements in flight and carry out surface operations. This type of versatility is ideal for exploring Titan, and Shapeshifter is even more versatile.

It is too early to tell if Shapeshifter or something like that will be the next planned mission to Titan. But it's not surprising that one day a robot descending from Shapeshifter bypasses Titan by flying, rolling and swimming.

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