Continual advancements in space technology are reshaping our capacity to manage Earth's affairs with precision and efficiency. Amidst the complexities of urbanization, climate change, and global connectivity, the need for sophisticated infrastructure has become increasingly apparent.&nbsp;Satellites, with advanced functionalities, have emerged as indispensable tools for data acquisition, analysis, and communication, which are crucial for informed decision-making on Earth.With their high-resolution cameras, multispectral sensors, and robust communication capabilities, we can capture and transmit data from a wide range of Earth-related activities, from urban planning and disaster management to agricultural monitoring and environmental protection.By continuously orbiting the Earth, satellites capture detailed images and other sensor data covering the whole planet’s surface. We can use this data to track changes in landscapes, monitor weather patterns, and observe natural disasters like forest fires, floods, and hurricanes in real time.This data is collected and transmitted back to Earth, where it can undergo rigorous analysis. Machine learning algorithms, data analytics, and other advanced computing techniques allow us to interpret the data with ease. For example, predictive modeling is utilized to forecast weather changes or track the migration patterns of endangered species. The ability to process real-time data enables quick decision-making, which is especially crucial during responses to natural disasters and emergencies.&nbsp;Communication is another critical functionality of satellites. They ensure communication lines are able to remain open, even in the most remote parts of the world. This facilitates global connectivity, allowing data, voice, and video communication to be transmitted across diverse geographical landscapes.<h1 dir="ltr">Maintenance in space</h1>On Earth, if something breaks down in a factory or a power plant, we don’t build a replacement. Instead, we send a repair team with spare parts, and even better yet, we monitor the components' wear and replace them before they break down. This preventive maintenance approach minimizes downtime and reduces the costs associated with sudden breakdowns.This methodology is critical in industries where reliability and uptime are essential. By continuously monitoring equipment health through sensors and predictive analytics, we can identify potential problems before they lead to operational failures. However, this approach faces unique challenges in space, where sending a repair team is not feasible due to the vast distances and extreme conditions.The transition from Earth-based maintenance to space requires innovative solutions to overcome these challenges. The harsh space environment, including vacuum conditions, microgravity, and cosmic radiation, makes traditional maintenance methods impractical. Additionally, the delay in communication between Earth and spacecraft further complicates real-time interventions, necessitating a more autonomous approach to maintenance and repair operations in space.<a href="https://www.ant61.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ANT61&nbsp;</a>develops autonomous robots that enable the maintenance of satellites without the need to put human lives at risk. ANT61 is providing solutions for both: their Beacon product allows satellite operators to understand what went wrong with their satellites and restore them back to operation.For larger and more expensive satellites, they are building robots that will dock, refuel, and, in the future, refurbish satellites, prolonging their useful life. At the core of these robots lies ANT61 BrainTM, the innovative devices that combine machine vision and decision-making technology, enabling the autonomy of these maintenance robots. Autonomy is very important as, due to the speed of light limitations, it won’t be possible to control every movement of these robots remotely from Earth.<h3 dir="ltr">BrainChip AkidaTM&nbsp;: A revolutionary neuromorphic processor for edge AI applications</h3>The first generation of the ANT61 Brain uses the <a href="https://brainchip.com/akida-neural-processor-soc/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">BrainChip AkidaTM</a> chip for power-efficient AI and is currently on board the Optimus-1 satellite, which was deployed recently by the SpaceX Transporter-10 mission. ANT61 will test the ANT61 Brain later this year and perform training and evaluation of various neural networks that we will use for future in-orbit servicing technology demonstrations.The BrainChip Akida™ chip is a groundbreaking advancement in neuromorphic computing, designed to mimic the neural architecture of the human brain. This technology stands out for its ability to process data directly at the point of acquisition, greatly enhancing efficiency by reducing the reliance on distant cloud-based systems for data processing.Akida's unique capability lies in its event-based neural processor, which processes data only when needed, using data sparsity to significantly reduce the number of operations required. This leads to lower power consumption and heat dissipation, making it highly suitable for the demanding conditions of space. Each Akida node consists of four Neural Network Layer Engines (NPEs), which can be configured for various functions, such as convolutional layers or fully connected layers, and support incremental learning and high-speed inference. This configuration flexibility allows the chip to efficiently handle a wide range of AI tasks without needing constant connectivity or high power draw.Akida's scalable architecture enables the chip to support up to 256 nodes in a mesh network, boosting computational power while maintaining a small footprint. This scalability is crucial for space applications where efficiency and performance are vital. The entire neural network can be embedded directly within the Akida fabric, eliminating the need for frequent data transfers that consume significant power and reduce system responsiveness.Another key feature of the Akida chip is its on-chip learning capability, which allows it to adapt and improve its performance over time without external intervention. This feature is particularly beneficial in space, where conditions can change rapidly and autonomy is crucial. By processing and learning from data locally, Akida enhances the autonomy of satellite maintenance robots like those developed by ANT61, enabling them to perform complex tasks with minimal latency and enhanced reliability.The ANT61 team chose to partner with BrainChip because they believe that neuromorphic technology will bring the same exponential improvement in AI as 20 years ago. The shift from CPU to GPU opened doors to deep neural network applications, which are at the core of all AI technologies today. Neuromorphic technology is also perfect for space: the lower power consumption means less heat dissipation, and we can get up to five times more computational power for the same electrical power budget.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1715339791069-Akida_1000_chip-1.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Akida AKD1000 is a reference chip implemented with TSMC at 28nm<h1 dir="ltr">The ANT61 vision for the future</h1>Humanity’s expansion to the cosmos requires infrastructure that can only be built by robots. With its in-orbit servicing experience, ANT61 aims to become the main supplier of the robotic workforce for Moon and Mars installations. This will enable companies from Earth to project their ambition to space, providing valuable services and resources for future off-world factories and cities.Neuromorphic computing, exemplified by technologies like the BrainChip Akida™ chip, is set to play a pivotal role in this spacefaring era. This form of computing brings several advantages crucial for space applications, such as low power consumption, high efficiency, and the ability to perform complex computations needed for autonomy. By mimicking the human brain, neuromorphic processors can process large volumes of sensor data efficiently, making real-time decisions without the need to send data back to Earth for processing.The integration of neuromorphic computing into space robotics promises to significantly improve these machines' capabilities. Robots equipped with advanced AI processors can better handle the unpredictable nature of space environments, adapting to new challenges autonomously and performing tasks ranging from construction to maintenance and repair. This capability ensures that space habitats are built efficiently and can be sustained with minimal human oversight.ANT61's vision of utilizing these technologies to support human expansion into space reflects a forward-thinking approach that will not only facilitate the construction of off-world establishments but also ensure their long-term sustainability and success.&nbsp;

Remote satellite maintenance is crucial to critical data acquisition and global communication


Advancing Earth Management Through Neuromorphic Computing Powered Satellites

The printing of conductive inks is changing the additive electronics market, and is also opening up exciting new areas of scientific research that could have major implications in a number of industries. Alex Kachkine and Luis Fernando Velásquez-García of MIT recently published an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mtl.mit.edu/news/velasquez-groups-work-additively-manufactured-vacuum-electron-sources-win-best-paper-award" target="_blank">award-winning paper</a> that showed how&nbsp;<a href="https://www.voltera.io/nova?utm_campaign=Wevolver&utm_source=Blog&utm_content=NOVA" target="_blank">Voltera NOVA</a>, a materials dispensing system that utilizes direct-ink writing technology to additively print conductive materials, could be used to fabricate field emission electron sources that can help with the propulsion of small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO).This article looks at how Kachkine and Velásquez-García devised a novel method involving two separate rounds of sonification to create an ink densely packed with carbon nanotubes, allowing them to obtain remarkably high performance from their printed field emission devices. In the article, we look at how additive manufacturing offers major advantages over traditional semiconductor fabrication methods, as well as the potential impact of the researchers’ work in aerospace, spectrometry, and other fields.<h1 dir="ltr">What is Field Electron Emission?</h1>Field electron emission is when an electrostatic field induces the emission of electrons, typically from a solid surface into a vacuum. The process is an important area of study in quantum mechanics and can be explained by the phenomenon of quantum tunneling, in which an electron passes through a barrier despite lacking the required energy (according to classical mechanics) to actually do so.Field emission electron sources have several practical applications, from field electron microscopy to electric spacecraft propulsion. However, fabricating them can be challenging: use of semiconductor cleanrooms is expensive, slow, and comes with significant environmental costs.<h1 dir="ltr">Printed Carbon Nanotube Electron Sources</h1>The additive manufacturing of field emission electron sources shows promise for overcoming major limitations in traditional fabrication processes. Direct-ink writing (DIW), a form of additive printing suitable for electronic devices, is a low-cost, low-waste process compatible with a broad range of inks and substrates. It is also highly portable, and could potentially be deployed on spacecraft for in-situ printing.Nonetheless, DIW has its own limitations. Today, most DIW field emission sources cannot match the peak emission currents of their cleanroom-made counterparts, while they also require greater startup voltages. This limits their practical use, as performance ultimately dictates the fabrication method to a greater extent than cost, speed, or environmental concerns.In their recent study, the MIT researchers attempted to create an ink containing the highest possible concentration of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in order to break through the current limitations in peak emission currents for 3D printed emitters. Their strategy was to use an unusual two-pronged sonication technique, which helped to prevent unwanted evaporation of solvents during ink preparation. The first round of sonication, during which water was used as a coolant to prevent evaporation, took place after the mixing of CNTs and N,N-Dimethylformamide. The second round took place after the filtering of undispersed CNT clumps and the introduction of ethyl cellulose.Using this innovative technique, the researchers prepared the inks and stored them in thermally stable cartridges. They then loaded their chosen ink cartridge and a standard FR4 substrate onto the NOVA printer to begin the printing process. The machine was able to print a spiralized CNT trace to act as the emitting electrode, offset from a conventional PCB copper trace functioning as the extractor electrode. The printer could accurately print in the gaps between the pre-existing copper trace via optical alignment and surface probing, completing each print in just 30 seconds.<h2 dir="ltr">The Results of the Study</h2>During their research, the team made a number of ink formulations with a CNT concentration ranging from 0.1 wt% to 4.0 wt% and an ethyl cellulose concentration ranging from 0 wt% to 50 wt%, storing each different formulation in its own printable cartridge. The idea behind making a number of different inks with different ratios of their components was to test how concentrated they could make the ink (how many CNTs could be packed into it) before it became impossible to print.While inks with a 4.0 wt% of CNTs resulted in nozzle clogging due to solvent evaporation, making printing impossible, slightly lower concentrations produced highly promising results. Analysis revealed that the devices had a field emission startup voltage of ~40 V and an aggregate peak current of up to ~100 μA/cm2 (beyond which the devices would heat up and stop working) — a higher level of performance than state-of-the-art emitters currently available, and better than previous attempts to make printed emitters of this sort.The researchers noted that the affordability of the NOVA system used in the study could open up the number of potential users and applications for the technique while also commenting on how the printer’s integrated surface mapping and optical alignment enabled precision printing of the spiralized CNT trace.<h1 dir="ltr">Potential Applications of 3D Printed CNT Electron Sources</h1><h2 dir="ltr">Space Propulsion</h2>Different spacecraft have different methods of propulsion, and one form of electric propulsion — more propellant-efficient than chemical rockets — is the ion thruster. An ion thruster makes a cloud of positive ions from a neutral gas via ionization, with electricity used to accelerate the ions and create thrust.Electric propulsion requires the use of a neutralizer to neutralize the gas and allow it to disperse into space. Without a neutralizer, the spacecraft itself could become charged, potentially damaging fragile onboard equipment. Fortunately, field emission electron sources are ideal neutralizers, particularly in low Earth orbit where there is poor vacuum due to residual oxygen.<h2 dir="ltr">Mass Spectrometry &amp; Beyond</h2>Another application of densely packed 3D printed CNT field emitters is in mass spectrometry of gasses, in which the mass-to-charge ratio of ions is measured. Electron impact ionization can provide better signal clarity than corona discharge approaches, which are destructive. The development of 3D printed CNT emitters holds plenty of promise for this field, as it requires lower pressure from the ionizer, which can make the spectrometer more portable.Other fields that could benefit from printed electron sources made using high-concentration CNT inks include X-ray imaging and electron beam lithography (EBL), a technique for drawing custom shapes on electron-sensitive films, known as resists. In both of these fields, a significant reduction in power consumption and the ability to work in poor vacuum makes printed field emission electron sources preferable to their mainstream thermionic emission counterparts.<h1 dir="ltr">Conclusion</h1>This latest study is not the first undertaking by members of MIT’s Velásquez Group — specialists in miniaturized devices — to harness the power of a Voltera printer to make a field emission electron source. In 2019, Velásquez-García and lead author Imperio Anel Perales-Martinez fabricated the first ever 3D printed CNT field emission electron sources using a <a href="https://www.voltera.io/v-one?utm_campaign=Wevolver&utm_source=Blog&utm_content=V-One" target="_blank">Voltera V-One</a>. That work laid the foundations for this latest study, with its development of an electron source characterized by a much higher peak current and lower startup voltage.This latest round of exciting findings from the Velásquez Group shows the enormous potential of direct ink writing for the additive manufacturing of critical components in a range of disciplines, from aerospace to healthcare. Overcoming challenges such as unwanted solvent evaporation and nozzle clogging at very high CNT concentrations could further enhance the performance of printed emitters.

Researchers at MIT used a Voltera NOVA to successfully print field electron emitters with a high-concentration carbon nanotube ink. The research has exciting implications for small satellites.

How Precision 3D Printing Enables Miniaturized Electric Space Propulsion

Space exploration has captivated humanity for decades with its promise of adventure and scientific discovery. But venturing beyond our atmosphere comes with immense challenges. This is where a new wave of technology is poised to revolutionize the space industry: artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics.&nbsp;This episode of the BrainChip podcast is a conversation between BrainChip CTO Dr Tony Lewis and Mikhail Asavkin, founder of Australian space tech company ANT61. They talk about how AI and intelligent robots are no longer science fiction but the key to unlocking the future of space exploration.&nbsp;<h2 dir="ltr">Reusable Rockets and the Democratization of Space</h2>Over the past decade, we have witnessed a remarkable transformation propelled by innovation and the rise of private industry in the space sector. The ability to recover and relaunch rockets has dramatically reduced the cost of space access, opening the door for a new era of private space exploration companies.&nbsp;This democratization of space has spurred innovation and ignited a global race to push the boundaries of what's possible. Mikhail Asavkin, drawing from his extensive experience in space engineering, sheds light on this evolutionary journey and explains how companies like ANT61 are now able to focus their resources on cutting-edge technologies like AI and robotics, thanks to the more affordable launch options provided by reusable rockets.&nbsp;This shift has fundamentally changed the landscape of space exploration, making it a more accessible and dynamic field.<h2 dir="ltr">The Impact of AI on Space Exploration</h2>Mikhail Asavkin and Dr Tony Lewis also discuss the transformative role of AI in space exploration. Here's why AI is the silent hero propelling us further into the cosmos:<ul><li dir="ltr">Due to the speed of light, communicating with robots on the Moon or Mars in real time is impossible. This is where AI steps in. By enabling robots to make autonomous decisions based on sensor data and their surroundings, AI eliminates the need for constant human intervention from Earth.</li><li dir="ltr">Space exploration demands more than just following pre-programmed instructions. Robots must be able to perceive their environment, identify objects, and navigate complex situations. Advancements in AI, particularly image recognition and deep learning, allow robots to "see" and understand their surroundings, enabling them to perform intricate tasks and make critical decisions independently.</li></ul><h2 dir="ltr">Neuromorphic Computing in Space</h2>The limitations of traditional AI systems, particularly their high power consumption, pose a significant challenge for space exploration. Here's where neuromorphic computing enables new ways of exploring space.&nbsp;Inspired by the structure and function of the human brain, neuromorphic chips are designed to process information similarly. This translates to a dramatic reduction in power consumption compared to traditional AI hardware like GPUs (Graphics Processing Units). For spacefaring robots, this is a game-changer.Neuromorphic technology offers a multitude of benefits for space AI:<ul><li dir="ltr">Neuromorphic chips enable this dream by requiring significantly less power to perform complex tasks like object detection and real-time decision-making.</li><li dir="ltr">Neuromorphic chips excel at real-time processing, allowing robots to make critical decisions without delay. This is essential for tasks like navigating hazardous terrain or performing delicate scientific operations.</li></ul><h2 dir="ltr">Training AI on the Go</h2>Traditionally, training AI models involves massive datasets downloaded from Earth and meticulously labeled by humans – a time-consuming and impractical process in the vast expanse of space.Neuromorphic computers, with their ability to learn and adapt in real time, make this possible. The AI model can continuously improve its capabilities and decision-making abilities by processing sensor data and surroundings. By training on-site, the AI model can adapt to specific situations and environments, making its tasks more robust and efficient.However, the podcast also discusses a significant challenge that remains: ensuring the safety and well-being of human explorers venturing into the unknown. This necessitates further advancements in AI, particularly in areas like risk assessment, anomaly detection, and real-time decision-making.<h2 dir="ltr">Conclusion: New Era in Space Exploration</h2>From enabling autonomous robots to construct lunar habitats to empowering AI models to learn and adapt on the fly, these technologies are revolutionizing how we venture beyond our planet. As we look towards a future where humanity establishes a presence on other celestial bodies, AI and robotics will be our indispensable companions.Listen to the full podcast <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyVWVjYM-nQ&t=3s" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here.</a>

In this episode, ANT61 Founder and CEO Mikhail Asavkin joins BrainChip CTO Dr. Tony Lewis to discuss the evolution of Space Technology and its impact on daily life. 

BrainChip Podcast: Robotics in Space discussion with ANT61 Founder Mikhail Asavkin

To save on fuel and reduce aircraft emissions, engineers are looking to build lighter, stronger airplanes out of advanced composites. These engineered materials are made from high-performance fibers that are embedded in polymer sheets. The sheets can be stacked and pressed into one multilayered material and made into extremely lightweight and durable structures.But composite materials have one main vulnerability: the space between layers, which is typically filled with polymer “glue” to bond the layers together. In the event of an impact or strike, cracks can easily spread between layers and weaken the material, even though there may be no visible damage to the layers themselves. Over time, as these hidden cracks spread between layers, the composite could suddenly crumble without warning.Now, MIT engineers have shown they can prevent cracks from spreading between composite’s layers, using an approach they developed called “nanostitching,” in which they deposit chemically grown microscopic forests of carbon nanotubes between composite layers. The tiny, densely packed fibers grip and hold the layers together, like ultrastrong Velcro, preventing the layers from peeling or shearing apart.In experiments with an advanced composite known as thin-ply carbon fiber laminate, the team demonstrated that layers bonded with nanostitching improved the material’s resistance to cracks by up to 60 percent, compared with composites with conventional polymers. The researchers say the results help to address the main vulnerability in advanced composites.“Just like phyllo dough flakes apart, composite layers can peel apart because this interlaminar region is the Achilles’ heel of composites,” says Brian Wardle, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. “We’re showing that nanostitching makes this normally weak region so strong and tough that a crack will not grow there. So, we could expect the next generation of aircraft to have composites held together with this nano-Velcro, to make aircraft safer and have greater longevity.”Wardle and his colleagues have <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.3c17333" target="_blank">published their results</a> today in the journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. The study’s first author is former MIT visiting graduate student and postdoc Carolina Furtado, along with Reed Kopp, Xinchen Ni, Carlos Sarrado, Estelle Kalfon-Cohen, and Pedro Camanho.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1713566912216-MIT-Nanostitch-02-press.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Nanostitching involves “growing” a forest of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (CNT) on a wafer of silicon, through a process of chemical vapor deposition. The CNT-deposited wafer (to the left in grid “a”) is then inverted and pressed onto a larger composite ply (b), and lifted away, leaving the CNTs on the composite’s surface (c). A second ply is placed over the first, with the CNTs between, “stitching” the plies together. Image: Courtesy of the researchers<h2>Forest growth</h2>At MIT, Wardle is director of the necstlab (pronounced “next lab”), where he and his group <a href="https://news.mit.edu/2016/carbon-nanotube-stitches-strengthen-composites-0803" target="_blank">first developed</a> the concept for nanostitching. The approach involves “growing” a forest of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes — hollow fibers of carbon, each so small that tens of billions of the the nanotubes can stand in an area smaller than a fingernail. To grow the nanotubes, the team used a process of chemical vapor deposition to react various catalysts in an oven, causing carbon to settle onto a surface as tiny, hair-like supports. The supports are eventually removed, leaving behind a densely packed forest of microscopic, vertical rolls of carbon.The lab has previously shown that the nanotube forests can be grown and adhered to layers of composite material, and that this fiber-reinforced compound improves the material’s overall strength. The researchers had also seen some signs that the fibers can improve a composite’s resistance to cracks between layers.In their new study, the engineers took a more in-depth look at the between-layer region in composites to test and quantify how nanostitching would improve the region’s resistance to cracks. In particular, the study focused on an advanced composite material known as thin-ply carbon fiber laminates.“This is an emerging composite technology, where each layer, or ply, is about 50 microns thin, compared to standard composite plies that are 150 microns, which is about the diameter of a human hair. There’s evidence to suggest they are better than standard-thickness composites. And we wanted to see whether there might be synergy between our nanostitching and this thin-ply technology, since it could lead to more resilient aircraft, high-value aerospace structures, and space and military vehicles,” Wardle says.<h2>Velcro grip</h2>The study’s experiments were led by Carolina Furtado, who joined the effort as part of the MIT-Portugal program in 2016, continued the project as a postdoc, and is now a professor at the University of Porto in Portugal, where her research focuses on modeling cracks and damage in advanced composites.In her tests, Furtado used the group’s techniques of chemical vapor deposition to grow densely packed forests of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes. She also fabricated samples of thin-ply carbon fiber laminates. The resulting advanced composite was about 3 millimeters thick and comprised 60 layers, each made from stiff, horizontal fibers embedded in a polymer sheet.She transferred and adhered the nanotube forest in between the two middle layers of the composite, then cooked the material in an autoclave to cure. To test crack resistance, the researchers placed a crack on the edge of the composite, right at the start of the region between the two middle layers.“In fracture testing, we always start with a crack because we want to test whether and how far the crack will spread,” Furtado explains.The researchers then placed samples of the nanotube-reinforced composite in an experimental setup to test their resilience to “delamination,” or the potential for layers to separate.“There’s lots of ways you can get precursors to delamination, such as from impacts, like tool drop, bird strike, runway kickup in aircraft, and there could be almost no visible damage, but internally it has a delamination,” Wardle says. “Just like a human, if you’ve got a hairline fracture in a bone, it’s not good. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not impacting you. And damage in composites is hard to inspect.”To examine nanostitching’s potential to prevent delamination, the team placed their samples in a setup to test three delamination modes, in which a crack could spread through the between-layer region and peel the layers apart or cause them to slide against each other, or do a combination of both. All three of these modes are the most common ways in which conventional composites can internally flake and crumble.The tests, in which the researchers precisely measured the force required to peel or shear the composite’s layers, revealed that the nanostitched held fast, and the initial crack that the researchers made was unable to spread further between the layers. The nanostitched samples were up to 62 percent tougher and more resistant to cracks, compared with the same advanced composite material that was held together with conventional polymers.“This is a new composite technology, turbocharged by our nanotubes,” Wardle says.“The authors have demonsrated that thin plies and nanostitching together have made significant increase in toughness,” says Stephen Tsai, emeritus professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University. “Composites are degraded by their weak interlaminar strength. Any improvement shown in this work will increase the design allowable, and reduce the weight and cost of composites technology.”The researchers envision that any vehicle or structure that incorporates conventional composites could be made lighter, tougher, and more resilient with nanostitching.“You could have selective reinforcement of problematic areas, to reinforce holes or bolted joints, or places where delamination might happen,” Furtado says. “This opens a big window of opportunity.”

This schematic shows an engineered material with composite layers. Layers of carbon fibers (the long silver tubes) have microscopic forests of carbon nanotubes between them (the array of tiny brown objects). These tiny, densely packed fibers grip and hold the layers together, like ultrastrong Velcro, preventing the layers from peeling or shearing apart. Image: Courtesy of the researchers, edited by MIT News

In research that may lead to next-generation airplanes and spacecraft, MIT engineers used carbon nanotubes to prevent cracking in multilayered composites.

"Nanostitches" enable lighter and tougher composite materials

This story by Landon Hall was first published in the&nbsp;<a href="https://viterbischool.usc.edu/news/2024/04/teaching-robots-to-walk-on-the-moon-and-maybe-rescue-one-another/" target="_blank">USC Viterbi School of Engineering newsroom</a>.Georgia Tech alumna&nbsp;Feifei Qian&nbsp;(M.S. PHYS 2011, Ph.D. ECE 2015), an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and School of Advanced Computing, leads the NASA LASSIE project alongside co-investigator&nbsp;Frances Rivera-Hernández, an assistant professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech.&nbsp;Sharissa Thompson, a graduate student at Georgia Tech, is a student intern on the NASA Curiosity Rover project.The Palmer Glacier on Oregon’s Mount Hood isn’t the moon, but it’s a good place to practice.Some 6,000 feet up the snow-capped mountain, located about 70 miles east of Portland, a multidisciplinary team from the University of Southern California, Texas A&amp;M University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Oregon State University, Temple University, the University of Pennsylvania, and NASA gathered to turn loose a four-legged robot named Spirit into the wild.The team that included engineers, cognitive scientists, geoscientists, and planetary scientists field-tested Spirit as part of the LASSIE Project: Legged Autonomous Surface Science in Analog Environments. Spirit covered a variety of challenging terrains, using his spindly metal legs to amble over, across, and over around shifting dirt, slushy snow, and boulders during five days of testing in summer 2023. Sometimes he expertly traversed the hillside, while at other moments he teetered and fell over — all part of the process to better understand the substrate properties and learn to better walk on these extreme terrains. The practice time Spirit logged produced data that will be used to train future robots for use on intergalactic surfaces, like Earth’s moon and perhaps planets in our solar system.“A legged robot needs to be able to detect what is happening when it interacts with the ground underneath, and rapidly adjust its locomotion strategies accordingly,” says Feifei Qian, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and School of Advanced Computing, which is leading the project funded by NASA. “When the robot leg slips on ice or sinks into soft snow, it inspires us to look for new principles and strategies that can push the boundary of human knowledge and enable new technology. We learn and improve from the observed failures.”Watch this&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBTyelFFE1A" target="_blank">5-minute video</a>&nbsp;produced for the team by documentary filmmaker Sean Grasso.<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wBTyelFFE1A?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe> Spirit learns from every step.“Similar to the way that when we walk on uneven surfaces as humans, we can sort of detect how the ground is shifting beneath our feet, a legged robot is capable of the exact same thing,” says Cristina Wilson, a cognitive scientist at Oregon State University.<h2>The more machines the merrier</h2>Qian’s group doesn’t intend to stop at just one robot, wandering the wilderness alone. She and her former colleagues at Penn, Cynthia Sung, Mark Yim, Daniel Koditschek, and Douglas Jerolmack, received a two-year, $2 million grant from NASA they’re calling the TRUSSES Project: Temporarily, Robots Unite to Surmount Sandy Entrapments, Then Separate. They want to help the space agency put teams of robots on the Moon and have them work together on tasks. They would take the knowledge they came in with, and the data they collect on the mission, and communicate those details to each other.“They would sense how the ground conditions are,” Qian says, “and then exchange that information with one another, and collectively form a map of locomotion risk estimation. The team of robots can then use this traversal risk map to inform their planetary explorations: ‘There is an extremely soft sand patch that might be high-risk for wheeled rovers. Come over here, this might be a safer area.’ ”The robots in mind for this kind of work would be more than just Spirit: There would be a wheeled rover (great for payload and long distances), a Hexapedal robot (intermediate payload but better mobility than the wheeled), and dog-like ones like the rugged version of Spirit (highest mobility, shorter distances). And here’s the coolest part of that research, the part that sounds like something the Transformers would do. Or at least a team of castaways on Survivor: If one got in a jam, made immovable by loose dirt or a rock or a ravine, his bot-mates would arrive and link together and form a bridge, or a pyramid, to hoist their pal to safety. And then back to work.“When they plan for the strategy to pull the robot up, they’ll decide what force to exert and what position the robot should go to, while also compiling the terrain information,” Qian says. “That’s the key idea of how to use these capabilities: to both prevent and recover from locomotion failures in extreme terrain.”<h2>Back to Mount Hood</h2>Spirit gets around a variety of natural environments, to learn how to better move on challenging terrains. Qian has let him off his leash on Southern California beaches, and the multi-university team has field-tested him in the soft granules of White Sands National Park in New Mexico. But <a href="https://youtu.be/wBTyelFFE1A" target="_blank">the video</a> shot at Mount Hood shows just how otherworldly that landscape can be in these planetary-analog environments. This provides Spirit with plenty of opportunities to learn on earth, before potentially exploring other planets.“You look around us, it would be very hard to drive up this,” Ryan Ewing, a geologist from NASA Johnson Space Center, <a href="https://youtu.be/wBTyelFFE1A?feature=shared" target="_blank">shares</a>. “But as a legged being, as humans, we can step around it easily. A dog could walk around it easily. So this project is the proving ground that we can enable new science and new mobility on environments that are like other planets.”In fact, a dog is indeed frisking about: Howard, Wilson’s German shepherd, wandered about, with the kind of agility Spirit could only dream of.“We are going to observe how Howard moves in different types of snow and ice conditions,” Qian <a href="https://youtu.be/wBTyelFFE1A?feature=shared" target="_blank">says</a>. “What exactly, out of those combined motions, allows him to succeed on challenging terrain?”The LASSIE Project calls for two more trips for Spirit: to Mount Hood this summer, and to White Sands next year. The TRUSSES team, from USC and Penn, also plans to visit White Sands next year with Spirit and the other, new, multitasking robots. Imagine WALL-E with friends.<hr>The NASA PSTAR (Planetary Science and Technology Through Analog Research) number for this project is 80NSSC22K1313.

Researchers at Georgia Tech have teamed up with NASA and five peer institutions to teach dog-like robots to navigate craters of the moon and other challenging planetary surfaces.

Good Dog: LASSIE Spirit Learns to Walk on the Moon

One day the SpaceHopper will be deployed on space missions to explore relatively small celestial bodies such as asteroids and moons. These are thought to contain valuable mineral resources that could be of use to humankind in the future. The exploration of these bodies could also give us insights into our universe’s formation.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1712911128036-imageCarousel.imageformat.lightbox.1854501007.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The project was launched two and a half years ago as an ETH focus project for Bachelor’s degree students. It is now being continued as a regular research project by five Master’s degree students and one doctoral student. One particular challenge of developing exploration robots such as these is the very low gravity prevailing on small celestial bodies –in contrast to larger bodies such as Earth. For this reason, the researchers have tested their robot in zero gravity scenarios on a European Space Agency parabolic flight.<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8I4fe9VaQQg?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-gtm-yt-inspected-9="true" id="588287812" title="Using a hopping robot for asteroid exploration"></iframe>

The prototype of the SpaceHopper developed by ETH students. (Photograph: Dominik Lindegger)

As part of the SpaceHopper project, ETH Zurich students are developing a robot that can navigate very low gravity environments using a jumping-​like mode of locomotion.

Using a hopping robot for asteroid exploration

Through steady advances in the development of quantum computers and their ever-improving performance, it will be possible in the future to crack our current encryption processes. To address this challenge, researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are participating in an international research consortium to develop encryption methods that will apply physical laws to prevent the interception of messages. To safeguard communications over long distances, the QUICK³ space mission will deploy satellites.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1711154269577-csm_m241121013_ATOMIQS_Copyright_JensMeyer_UniversitaetJena_01_393047fa55.webp" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Tobias Vogl investigates single photon sources in 2D materials in an experimental setupHow can it be ensured that data transmitted through the internet can be read only by the intended recipient? At present our data are encrypted with mathematical methods that rely on the idea that the factorization of large numbers is a difficult task. With the increasing power of quantum computers, however, these mathematical codes will probably no longer be secure in the future.<header><h2>Encryption by means of physical laws</h2></header>Tobias Vogl, a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ce.cit.tum.de/qcs/home/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">professor of Quantum Communication Systems Engineering</a>, is working on an encryption process that relies on principles of physics. “Security will be based on the information being encoded into individual light particles and then transmitted. The laws of physics do not permit this information to be extracted or copied. When the information is intercepted, the light particles change their characteristics. Because we can measure these state changes, any attempt to intercept the transmitted data will be recognized immediately, regardless of future advances in technology,” says Tobias Vogl.The big challenge in so-called quantum cryptography lies in the transmission of data over long distances. In classical communications, information is encoded in many light particles and transmitted through optical fibers. However, the information in a single particle cannot be copied. As a result, the light signal cannot be repeatedly amplified, as with current optical fiber transmissions. This limits the transmission distance for the information to a few hundred kilometers.To send information to other cities or continents, the structure of the atmosphere will be used. At altitudes higher than around 10 kilometers, the atmosphere is so thin that light is neither scattered nor absorbed. This will make it possible to use satellites in order to extend quantum communications over longer distances.<header><h2>Satellites for quantum communications</h2></header>As part of the QUICK³ mission, Tobias Vogl and his team are developing an entire system, including all of the components needed to build a satellite for quantum communications. In a first step, the team tested each of the satellite components. The next step will be to try out the entire system in space. The researchers will investigate whether the technology can withstand outer space conditions and how the individual system components interact. The satellite launch is scheduled for 2025. To create an overarching network for quantum communications, however, hundreds or perhaps thousands of satellites will be needed.<header><h2>Hybrid network for encryption</h2></header>The concept does not necessarily require all information to be transmitted using this method, which is highly complex and costly. It is conceivable that a hybrid network could be implemented in which data can be encrypted either physically or mathematically. Antonia Wachter-Zeh, a <a href="https://www.ce.cit.tum.de/en/lnt/people/professors/wachter-zeh/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">professor of Coding and Cryptography</a>, is working to <a href="https://www.tum.de/en/news-and-events/all-news/press-releases/details/quantum-safe-data-encryption" target="_blank">develop algorithms sufficiently complex that not even quantum computers</a> can solve them. In the future it will still be enough to encrypt most information using mathematical algorithms. Quantum cryptography will be an option only for documents requiring special protection, for example in communications between banks.<hr>Najme Ahmadi, Sven Schwertfeger, Philipp Werner, Lukas Wiese, Joseph Lester, Elisa Da Ros, Josefine Krause, Sebastian Ritter, Mostafa Abasifard, Chanaprom Cholsuk, Ria G. Krämer, Simone Atzeni, Mustafa Gündoğan, Subash Sachidananda, Daniel Pardo, Stefan Nolte, Alexander Lohrmann, Alexander Ling, Julian Bartholomäus, Giacomo Corrielli, Markus Krutzik, Tobias Vogl. "QUICK3 - Design of a Satellite-Based Quantum Light Source for Quantum Communication and Extended Physical Theory Tests in Space“. Adv. Quantum Technol. (2024).&nbsp;<a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/qute.202300343" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer" id="isPasted">doi.org/10.1002/qute.202300343</a>

Tobias Vogl investigates single photon sources in 2D materials in an experimental setup

Through steady advances in the development of quantum computers and their ever-improving performance, it will be possible in the future to crack our current encryption processes.

Satellites for quantum communications

AI and robotics are enabling safer and more efficient space exploration. 

Embracing the Cosmos: Akida's Role in Advancing Space Tech for Daily Life

New, highly stretchable sensors can monitor and transmit plant growth information without human intervention, report University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers in the journal Device.&nbsp;The polymer sensors are resilient to humidity and temperature, can stretch over 400% while remaining attached to a plant as it grows and send a wireless signal to a remote monitoring location, said <a href="https://chbe.illinois.edu/" target="_blank">chemical and biomolecular engineering</a> professor <a href="https://chbe.illinois.edu/people/profile/yingdiao" target="_blank">Ying Diao</a>, who led the study with <a href="https://sib.illinois.edu/departments/plant-biology" target="_blank">plant biology</a> professor and department head <a href="https://sib.illinois.edu/directory/profile/leakey" target="_blank">Andrew Leakey</a>.The study details some of the early results of a NASA grant&nbsp;<a href="https://las.illinois.edu/news/2020-12-18/cultivating-astronomical-plant-growth" target="_blank">awarded to Diao</a> to investigate how wearable printed electronics will be used to make farming possible in space.“This work is motivated by the needs of astronauts to grow vegetables sustainably while they are on long missions,” she said.&nbsp;Diao’s team approached this project using an Earth-based laboratory to create a highly dependable, stretchable electronic device – and its development did not come easily, she said.&nbsp;“Honestly, we began this work thinking that this task would only take a few months to perfect. However, we quickly realized that our polymer was too rigid,” said Siqing Wang, a graduate student and first author of the study. “We had to reformulate a lot of the components to make them more soft and stretchable and adjust our printing method to control the assembly of the microstructures inside the device so that they did not form large crystals during the printing and curing process.”&nbsp;The team landed on a very thin film device that helps restrain the crystal growth during assembly and printing.“After addressing the stretchability and assembly issues, we had to tackle the problems that come with working with wearable electronics in high humidity and under rapid growth rates,” Wang said. “We needed reproducible results so we could not have the sensors fall off or electronically fail during the growth experiments. We finally came up with a seamless electrode and interface that was not affected by the demanding conditions.”<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WU1mXLertMM?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe>The ‘Stretchable-Polymer-Electronics-based Autonomous Remote Strain Sensor,’ or SPEARS2 – is the product of three years of hard work, proving that applied science rarely experiences eureka moments. &nbsp;“It is an exciting technical advance in our ability to perform precise, noninvasive measurements of plant growth in real-time. I look forward to seeing how it can complement the latest tools for interrogating genomic and cellular processes,” Leakey said.Diao also said she is excited to uncover all of the ways this research will continue to progress.&nbsp;For example, this study looks at plants like corn that grow primarily upward. However, the researchers plan to advance their electronics printing methodology to create a system that can monitor upward and outward growth.&nbsp;The team said they are also working toward the ability to sense and monitor chemical processes remotely. &nbsp;“I think the wearable electronics research community has ignored plants for too long,” Diao said. “We know that they are experiencing a lot of stress during climate adaptation, and I think soft electronics can play a bigger role in advancing our understanding so we can ensure that plants are healthy, happy and sustainable in the future – whether that is in space, on other planets or right here on Earth.”&nbsp;Researchers at NASA and Illinois researchers from&nbsp;<a href="https://bioengineering.illinois.edu/" target="_blank">bioengineering</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://cropsciences.illinois.edu/" target="_blank">crop sciences</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://matse.illinois.edu/" target="_blank">material science and engineering</a>, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.igb.illinois.edu/" target="_blank">Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology</a> and the&nbsp;<a href="https://beckman.illinois.edu/" target="_blank">Beckman Institute</a><a href="https://beckman.illinois.edu/" target="_blank">&nbsp;for Advanced Science and Technology</a> contributed to this study.&nbsp;

 Research led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign uses polymer-based stretchable electrodes to remotely monitor plant growth, bringing scientists a step closer to growing plants in space to feed astronauts during long missions.  Photo courtesy NASA Marshall Space Flight Center

New, highly stretchable sensors can monitor and transmit plant growth information without human intervention, report University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers in the journal Device. 

Study brings scientists a step closer to successfully growing plants in space

SEAS roboticists develop robots for Resilient ExtraTerrestrial Habitats

Robots to help with human habitation in space

What could small robots on earth have to do with exploration on the moon?Quite a lot, as it turns out. Professors and engineering students at Polytechnique Montréal have been busy writing algorithms and running experiments with robots and drones with one goal in mind: To enable them to explore unfamiliar and even hostile surroundings far beyond the reach of GPS or other forms of precision location technology.“What we want to do is to explore environments including caves and surfaces on other planets or satellites using robotics,” explains Dr. Giovanni Beltrame (Ph.D.), a full professor at Polytechnique’s Departments of Computer Engineering and Software Engineering.Before we get to the how, let’s address the why.“Caves and lava tubes can be ideal places for settlement: They can be&nbsp;sealed and provide radiation shielding. There’s also a chance of finding&nbsp;water ice in them,” says Dr. Beltrame.Of course, it’s also less risky – and less expensive –&nbsp;to send robots to other planets and moons rather than human beings. They don’t require life support, don’t get tired (with the exception of having to recharge), and they can gather and process data quickly.Just think of all the data that’s been acquired on Mars by the twin Rovers and the Mars helicopter.Below: A selfie taken by NASA’s Perseverance rover November 1, 2023, during the the 960th Martian day of its mission. The rover was built with a focus on astrobiology, searching for signs of ancient microbial life on the red planet. Image courtesy of NASA.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzA2NTYxNzQ0OTYwLVBJQTI2MjAyLWpwZy53ZWJwIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="NASA's Perseverance"><h3 id="isPasted">Prepare on Earth, Deploy in Space</h3>It’s a pretty ambitious vision. But for Beltrame and his team, it’s also very real. And it requires a lot of work and research here on earth.“So to get there (space) and do this with&nbsp;multiple robots, we’ve developed all sorts of technologies –&nbsp;navigation, perception, communication, coordination between the robots, and human-robot interfaces,” he says.“We’re doing all these things,&nbsp;because our goal is to use a swarm of robots to do planetary exploration. There’s more, but that’s it in a nutshell.”When you go to the moon, there’s no equivalent of GPS. And environments like caves can be really tricky – both in terms of robots understanding where they are, and also communicating with other robots beyond line of sight.With the right technologies and algorithms, that communication is possible. And much of Beltrame’s research has involved testing this on earth. In particular, he’s focusing on how groups of robots could take on such tasks collaboratively.“So our primary activities focus on swarm robotics,” he says.Generally that starts with simulation models. But there are limits to simulations – and real-world testing is a big part of what’s going on at Polytechnique.“So we do have this deployment philosophy that we try our technologies in simulation, but then we want to go to deploying robots. You can have the best simulation in the world, but there’s still a reality gap and it’s very extremely important to try things on the real robots,” he says.“We have a saying in the lab, which is: ‘Everything works in simulation’.&nbsp;You can always make your algorithm work in simulation, and then you get out in the field and things go wrong. So&nbsp;one thing we do in the lab is we always do the full stack. That’s why we need to have real robots.&nbsp;And we don’t only do experiments with real robots in the lab, we do them in the field.” <h3>MIST</h3>The lab he’s referring to is known as Polytechnique’s MIST, which stands for Making Innovative Space Technology. Dr. Beltrame is the director of the lab, which focuses on computer engineering targeted towards space technologies. In addition to the researchers, the lab is home to a *lot* of robots. There are big ones, small ones, wheeled ones, flying ones (drones) – literally “hundreds” of robots at the lab.But as Dr. Beltrame emphasised, proving that something will truly work requires testing in environments that are similar to what might be found on the moon or elsewhere. Locations where he’s carried out fieldwork include:<ul><li>Lava Beds National Monument in California (with <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/" target="_blank">NASA&nbsp;</a><a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/" target="_blank">JPL</a>)</li><li>The Kentucky mega-cave with the <a href="https://costar.jpl.nasa.gov/" target="_blank">CoSTAR</a> team</li><li>Tequixtepec&nbsp;in Mexico with SpéléoQuébec</li></ul>Just check out the images below of field work, courtesy of Dr. Beltrame:<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzA2NTYyNDU0NzUyLUlNRy0yMDIzMDMyMy1XQTAwMDAuanBnLndlYnAiLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Tight Space Exploration">Tight Spaces<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzA2NTYyNDYyOTQyLWx1bmFyc2V0dGluZy1qcGcud2VicCIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6OTUwLCJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciJ9fX0=" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">ESA Photo<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzA2NTYyNDg0ODU3LWltYWdlLXNjYWxlZC53ZWJwIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Cave Drone">Cave Drone<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzA2NTYyNTAzNzAwLWRyb25ldGVhbS1qcGcud2VicCIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6OTUwLCJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciJ9fX0=" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="ESA Team">ESA Photo<h3 id="isPasted">The InDro Connection&nbsp;</h3>Some of the robots used in the MIST lab – and perhaps eventually on the moon – arrived via InDro Robotics, a North American distributor for AgileX. In fact, Polytechnique has purchased a number of AgileX products, including platforms that InDro has modified to help speed the R&amp;D process. These include:<ul><li>24 LIMOs and simulation table</li><li>AgileX Scout Mini</li><li>AgileX Scout 2.0</li><li>Two AgileX Bunker Mini platforms, with custom builds by InDro</li></ul>We’ve <a href="https://indrorobotics.ca/new-limo-pro-ros2-models-bring-advanced-abilities-to-rd/" target="_blank">written about the LIMO before</a> – a small, affordable and versatile robot capable of perceiving its environment and even Simultaneous Localization and Mapping out of the box. It’s also an ideal size, particuarly when doing multi-agent/swarm robotics, for use in the lab. (You’d run out of space pretty fast with something much larger).“The LIMOs are a very good platform for Simultaneous Localization and Mapping &nbsp;– and perception in general,” says Beltrame.He says they’re a good choice “because they have a 3D camera, they’re lighter, agile, and are sufficiently low in cost. So we can use them in large numbers.&nbsp;Another good thing about the LIMOs is that once you have a lot of similar robots that are reasonably agile, you can actually make a full deployment of software (across all robots).”That makes them an ideal platform for multi-agent research and development.“For example, we developed this tool called Swarm SLAM where many robots collaborate to have a better perception of the environment. We’re currently testing it with the full fleet of LIMOs. That’s&nbsp;something we would have believed impossible with larger robots for logistical reasons.”Though the focus is firmly on space, the Polytechnique Montréal research has applications on earth. Swarms of robots could aid in disaster response, Search &amp; Rescue, and more.<h3>&nbsp;</h3><h3>Favourite Robot</h3>The LIMO isn’t the only AgileX product in Polytechnique’s stable. And while Beltram likes all of them, he has a soft spot for one in particular.“I would say that my favorite robot is the <a href="https://indrorobotics.ca/scout-mini-2/" target="_blank">Scout Mini</a>,” he says. “It’s fast, it’s agile and the control is extremely precise.”In fact, Beltrame often takes the Scout Mini with him when doing school presentations. It’s small enough to be carried in the trunk of his car and hand-carried to classrooms. His team has also used the platform to test a new code for path planning and sophisticated energy calculations. It’s capable of tracking the additional energy required for climbing inclines, for example, then calculating when the robot needs to return home to wirelessly recharge.As always, InDro works with clients to deliver precisely what they need. This saves time for those institutions and corporations on builds, allowing them to get on with the business of R&amp;D.“We’ve done quite a bit of integration for them,” says <a href="mailto:lcorbeth@indrorobotics.com" target="_blank">Luke Corbeth</a>, InDro’s Head of R&amp;D Sales.“For example (see picture below), we provide a top plate with all required hardware mounted and integrated. They then add their own sensors, protective structure, etc. So this is a great example of how we work with clients on a case-by-case basis depending on their needs as robotics isn’t one-size-fits-all.”<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzA2NTYyODUzMDA0LWltYWdlLnBuZy53ZWJwIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Tracker Robots"> <h3 id="isPasted">One Small Step...</h3>With all of this research, what comes next? Will the work being done today at Polytechnique eventually find its way off this planet?“The answer is it’s going to happen very soon,” says Beltrame.&nbsp;Sometime later this year, a rocket will head toward the moon carrying three small robots. It’s called the Cadre mission.A trio of small rovers will work as a team to explore the moon autonomously, mapping the subsurface in 3D, collecting distributed measurements, and showing the potential of multirobot missions,” says <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/cadre" target="_blank">NASA’s JPL website.&nbsp;</a>One of Beltrame’s students is working on that mission with JPL.“This is one example of how the work that we’ve been doing in this lab, in the end – through students that were here – become real missions,” says Beltrame.And that’s not all. As early as 2026, a Canadian-built rover could land on the moon in Canada’s first moon mission.Its task? To explore the moon’s south polar region in search of “water ice.” This ice is critical to long-term human habitation on the moon – and can also be converted to fuel, both for energy on the moon and potentially to refuel other spacecraft with destinations further afield.“I have an engineer from the Canadian Space Agency that’s a student of mine that’s developed the Mission Planner. So the idea is that we – our lab – developed the Mission Planner for the Canada rover that’s going to the moon.”Here’s a look at that planned mission, from the CSA:<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ti4a0oiWsMk??si=gdkI-fUB2n3fT89r&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true">&amp;lt;span class="fr-mk" style="display: none;"&amp;gt;&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;span class="fr-mk" style="display: none;"&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;lt;/span&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;span class="fr-mk" style="display: none;"&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/span&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;span class="fr-mk" style="display: none;"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/span&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;</iframe><h3 id="isPasted">And There's More</h3>There was some big news this week from Polytechnique Montréal. On January 24 it announced the formation of ASTROLITH, a body for “research in space resource and infrastructure engineering.”It’s the first Canadian group dedicated to lunar engineering, according to a news release.“Comprising experts from all seven Polytechnique departments, ASTROLITH will pursue the mission of helping to develop next-generation technologies and training the engineers of tomorrow to ensure Canada’s presence in space and lunar exploration, as well as addressing critical needs on our planet within the context of climate change, resource management and sustainable development,” reads the release.So while the emphasis is on the moon, ASTROLITH will also result in some very practical – and urgent – use-cases on our home planet.“As encapsulated in its Latin motto Ad Lunam pro Terra, ASTROLITH is dedicated to developing technologies with direct impacts here on Earth: enabling development of infrastructure in the Far North or facilitating the energy transition, for example,” says the release.“Indeed, the research unit’s founding members are already involved in developing technologies in various areas related to space and extreme environments, from design of resilient habitats and infrastructures for remote regions to deployment of cislunar communications technologies to development of advanced robotics systems for prospecting and mining, among many others. Their work is bolstered by contributions from specialists in life-cycle analysis, sustainable development and space-related policy development.”The team is composed of academics and researchers that span all seven Polytechnique departments. Beltrame, not surprisingly, is on the team – which is pictured below. (He’s in the back row, centre.)<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1706563288421-Screenshot-2024-01-26-at-9.03.42-AM.png.webp" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Research Team"><h3 id="isPasted">INDRO’S TAKE</h3>We find the work being carried out at Polytechnique Montréal, the MIST lab – and now ASTROLITH – both fascinating and important. It’s also a terrific example of how dedicated researchers and students can develop and test projects in the lab that eventually have real-world (and off-world) applications.“I’m incredibly impressed with the work being carried out here, and the fact it can be put to positive use-cases both on earth and in space,” says InDro Robotics CEO Philip Reece.“We wish Dr. Beltrame and his colleagues well, and we’ll certainly be watching these lunar missions with great interest. It’s always a pleasure when InDro can support teams doing important work like this.”You can find more about the MIST lab <a href="http://mistlab.ca/" target="_blank">here</a>. And if you’d like to talk about AgileX robots (or any other robotic solution), connect with the InDro experts <a href="https://indrorobotics.ca/connectwithanexpert/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>.&nbsp;

Bridging Earth and Lunar Exploration with Advanced Research

Robots on Earth Help Prepare for Research on the Moon

Humans, you might have noticed, aren’t perfect. We crash cars. We injure ourselves performing hazardous labor like mining and construction. And we fare poorly in extreme environments we’d like to explore – like the deep ocean or the vacuum of space.But <a href="https://profiles.stanford.edu/marco-pavone" data-extlink="" target="_blank">Marco Pavone</a>, associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics, and his students in the <a href="https://stanfordasl.github.io/" data-extlink="" target="_blank">Autonomous Systems Lab (ASL)</a> hope that emerging technologies like self-driving cars and space robots could one day help us get around these shortcomings.“It takes a lot of effort and equipment to keep people alive in space,” said <a href="https://stanfordasl.github.io/people/stephanie-newdick/" data-extlink="" target="_blank">Stephanie Newdick</a>, a PhD student in Pavone’s lab. And we’re not exactly indestructible on Earth, either. Sometimes, she said, “It just makes more sense to send a robot.”An ideal self-driving car, for instance, should make fewer mistakes than a human driver, allowing passengers to reach their destinations more efficiently and lowering the risk of an accident. And autonomous space robots could repair satellites or explore Martian landscapes – saving astronauts from life-threatening tasks while also pushing the boundaries of space exploration.<h2>An endless stream of decisions</h2>Achieving that level of competence for a space robot or self-driving car, however, is easier said than done. Autonomous systems like these must be able to make decisions and then translate them into physical actions in unpredictable – or completely alien – environments.The ASL tackles both issues, starting with designing decision-making algorithms that treat any scenario as a cost-benefit optimization problem. A self-driving car, for instance, must calculate which series of actions allow it to cross an intersection fastest while avoiding pedestrians and not jostling passengers – all in a few milliseconds. In addition to following fundamentals of good driving, such as staying within lines and abiding by traffic signals, this also involves anticipating the reactions of people in its environment.“If the robot does something, how might a nearby human respond?” Pavone said. “And based on that, how does the robot make its next decision?”Decision-making models also have to navigate the mishmash of cues a car might encounter – recognizing, for instance, that a stop sign printed on a billboard does not mean “stop.” Pavone’s lab is using large language models to design systems that can account for context in scenarios like this. Ideally, Pavone said, those systems will be able to learn from experience.“You see a lot of ‘firsts’ in your life, but you appeal to past experience and you don’t freak out,” Pavone said. “It’s pretty hard to do that with a robot.”<h2>New tools for new worlds</h2>All that decision-making does no good, however, unless a robot can translate it into effective physical actions in unfamiliar environments – for instance, zero gravity.That’s why Pavone’s lab has an air hockey table (or something close to one). Robot prototypes on its ultra-smooth granite surface shoot jets of air downwards and sideways, gliding over it like a puck. This way, Pavone’s lab can test how well the robots’ algorithms translate into lateral (though not vertical) motion in a zero-gravity-like environment.To ensure robots can do their jobs once they get where they’re going, the ASL also works on gripping tools – such as microspines for hooking into irregular surfaces and a <a href="https://news.stanford.edu/2021/05/20/gecko-gripper-tested-aboard-iss/" data-extlink="" target="_blank">gecko-inspired adhesive</a> co-developed with the <a href="http://bdml.stanford.edu/Profiles/MarkCutkosky" data-extlink="" target="_blank">Cutkosky lab</a>. Technologies like these could enable robots like Astrobee, a free-floating assistant aboard the ISS, to move cargo, fetch tools, make repairs, and clear debris.“An astronaut’s time is very valuable, but a significant amount of it is spent on housekeeping. Ideally, you would use a robot for that,” Pavone said, chuckling. “It’s fascinating work, but at the end of the day, we’re building robots to remove junk.”But the ASL’s designs could also help with space exploration. Take <a href="https://news.stanford.edu/2021/05/03/bringing-sci-fi-concepts-real-space-exploration/" data-extlink="" target="_blank">ReachBot</a>, one of Newdick’s main projects. Its eight arms extend like measuring tape with grippers at the ends. Paired with an autonomous navigation system, this could let it clamber around caves and tunnels on Mars without risking a human life to explore in person – but probably not anytime soon.“If I’m really lucky, in 20 years, my work will inspire another robot that does something different, but related,” Newdick said. “But if some part of what you do can contribute to something bigger, then that’s the goal.”<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1703984910214-20231129_ReachBot__95A0075.png" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Schematic of the newer generation of ReachBot, showing some of the technology and features it could have to help with exploration of other planets and celestial bodies. | Image courtesy of Autonomous Systems Lab<h2 id="isPasted">Always more to explore</h2>Deploying autonomous systems has its downsides – especially on Earth, where robots could potentially take some jobs currently held by humans.“That’s always in the back of my mind,” Pavone said. “We develop systems that hopefully will create opportunities in the long run, but in the short term might cause significant pain for some segments of society.”Pavone and his students collaborate with other schools across Stanford to understand those consequences and design different types of strategies to mitigate them – such as <a href="https://hai.stanford.edu/news/equitable-approach-reducing-traffic-through-congestion-pricing" data-extlink="" target="_blank">using AI to redistribute traffic toll money</a> from drivers who can afford tolls to those who can’t.But with space robots, not even the sky’s the limit. Pavone gives the example of Mars: 20 years ago, the goal was just to land a robot there. Now, we’ve sent helicopters to take aerial views of the surface, and with ReachBot, we’re hoping to look underground.“You always want to get into more complicated environments,” Pavone said. Newdick agreed: Given the resources, she said, she’d love to design a robot to crawl down the vents in the icy crust of Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, to search for signs of life – another exploration likely impossible without autonomous robots.“Learning where we came from, where the planets and stars came from – that’s always been a curiosity,” Newdick said. “We can learn a lot doing science on Earth, but we can learn more if we also look elsewhere.”

Associate Professor Marco Pavone and PhD student Stephanie Newdick holding their ReachBot prototype. | Photo courtesy of Andrew Brodhead

From space robots to self-driving cars, Stanford’s Autonomous Systems Lab looks to push the boundaries of exploration and boost the safety and efficiency of everyday tasks.

The limitations of being human got you down? There's a robot for that

Our society relies heavily on plastic products and the amount of plastic waste is expected to increase in the future. If not properly discarded or recycled, much of it accumulates in rivers and lakes. Eventually it will flow into the oceans, where it can form aggregations of marine debris together with natural materials like driftwood and algae. A new study from Wageningen University and EPFL researchers, recently published in Cell iScience, has developed an artificial intelligence-based detector that estimates the probability of marine debris shown in satellite images. This could help to systematically remove plastic litter from the oceans with ships.<h2>Automatic analysis</h2>Accumulations of marine debris are visible in freely available Sentinel-2 satellite images from the European Space Agency that capture coastal areas every 2-5 days worldwide on land masses and coastal areas. Because these amount to terabytes of data, the data needs to be analysed automatically through artificial intelligence models like deep neural networks. Marc Rußwurm, Assistant Professor at Wageningen University and former researcher at EPFL: “These models learn from examples provided by oceanographers and remote sensing specialists, who visually identified several thousand instances of marine debris in satellite images on locations across the globe. In this way they ‘trained’ the model to recognise plastic debris.” Devis Tuia, associate professor at EPFL and Director of the Sion-based Laboratory of Computational Science for the Environment and Earth Observation (ECEO), is corresponding author of the study.<blockquote>The detector remains accurate even in more challenging conditions. For example when cloud cover and atmospheric haze make it difficult for existing models to identify marine debris precisely.<footer>Marc Rußwurm, Assistant Professor at Wageningen University and former researcher at EPFL</footer></blockquote><h2>Improved detection</h2>The researchers developed an AI-based marine debris detector that estimates the probability of marine debris present for every pixel in Sentinel-2 satellite images. The detector is trained following data-centric AI principles that aim to make best use of the limited training data that is available for this problem. One example is the design of a computer vision algorithm that snaps manual annotations from experts precisely to the debris visible in the images. With this tool, oceanographers and remote sensing experts can provide more training data examples by being less precise in the manual clicking of outlines.Overall, this training method combined with the refinement algorithm teaches the deep artificial intelligence detection model to better predict marine debris objects than previous approaches. Rußwurm: “The detector remains accurate even in more challenging conditions. For example when cloud cover and atmospheric haze make it difficult for existing models to identify marine debris precisely.”<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1701346986180-9a9faa64.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Heavy precipitation over Durban, South Africa on 22 April 2019, 19:00. Continued precipitation between 18th and 22nd of April lead to the Durban Easter floods 2019 that washed substantial amounts of plastic litter into the Indian ocean, which are visible in Satellite images. Map data © 2023 Google. Precipitation data © JAXA Global Rainfall Watch<h2 id="isPasted">Following plastic debris</h2>Detecting plastics in marine debris under difficult atmospheric conditions with clouds and haze is particularly important, as often plastics are washed into open waters after rain and flood events. This is shown by the Durban Easter floods in South Africa: In 2019 a long period of rain led to overflowing rivers, resulting in much more litter being washed away than normally. It was taken along through the Durban harbour (left picture) into the open Indian Ocean (right picture). In satellite images, such objects floating between clouds are hard to distinguish when using common red-green-blue colour ‘channels’. They can be visualised by switching to other spectral channels, including near-infrared light.<h2>Double view</h2>Apart from more accurate prediction of marine debris aggregations, the detection model will also notice debris in daily-accessible PlanetScope images, coming from cubic nanosatellites. “Combining weekly Sentinel-2 with daily PlanetScope acquisitions can close the gap towards continuous daily monitoring”, explained Rußwurm. “Also, PlanetScope and Sentinel-2 sometimes capture the same patch of marine debris at the same day only a few minutes apart. This double view of the same object at two locations reveals the drift direction due to wind and ocean currents on the water. This information can be used to improve drift estimation models for marine debris.”<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1701347058805-06fb92a9.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The scientists tested the AI model predictions on Sentinel-2 satellite images of challenging atmospheric conditions with clouds and haze. In red, the correctly detected debris with plastic waste. © ESA / Cell iScience<h2 id="isPasted">Further explorations</h2>These directions will be explored further in the research of Prof. Marc Rußwurm at Wageningen University together with Prof. Tim van Emmerik, who is an expert in river plastics, and partners in the Netherlands, such as the Ocean Cleanup, who collect plastics on open oceans with dedicated ships. It originates from work in the AI for Detection of Plastics with Tracking (ADOPT) project in collaboration with the Swiss Data Science Center (a joint venture between ETH Zurich and EPFL) and EPFL by Prof. Devis Tuia, Dr. Emanuele Dalsasso, and Prof. Marc Rußwurm that investigates the continuous tracking of marine debris in between satellite imagery further.<h2>Sentinel-2 and PlanetScope</h2><a href="https://sentinel.esa.int/web/sentinel/missions/sentinel-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ESA’s Sentinel-2 satellite constellation</a> from the European Space Agency consists of two large satellites that cover the Earth every 2-5 days. They measure the reflected light in multiple spectral channels beyond the visible red-green-blue and up to 10m pixel size. The images are openly available.<a href="https://earth.esa.int/eogateway/missions/planetscope" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PlanetScope Doves and SuperDoves</a> make up a constellation of several hundred small CubeSats (nanosatellites) that cover the Earth every day at 3-7m pixel resolution. The images are not free to acquire, but can be used to a limited extent for research purposes at no cost through a Research and Education programme.<hr>References<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004223024793" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Marc Rußwurm, Sushen Jilla Venkatesa, Devis Tuia, "Large-scale Detection of Marine Debris in Coastal Areas with Sentinel-2", Cell iScience, 8 November 2023.</a>

Durban's beach after a flood on 13 April 2022, two years after the one of 2019. © iStock/Antonio BlancoDR

A research team from EPFL and Wageningen University has developed a new artificial intelligence model that recognises floating plastics much more accurately in satellite images than before. This could help to systematically remove plastic litter from the oceans with ships.

AI helps detecting plastic in oceans

Small satellites are becoming increasingly compact and powerful. The technology of conventional radio channels is reaching its limits due to the rising number of satellites. Laser communications offers solutions for the efficient transmission of high data volumes without interfering with other channels. For this application, the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) <a href="https://www.dlr.de/en/kn" target="_blank">Institute of Communications and Navigation</a>, together with the company Tesat-Spacecom GmbH &amp; Co. KG <a href="https://www.tesat.de/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">TESAT</a>, developed OSIRIS4CubeSat, the world's smallest commercially available laser communications terminal. The reliability and error-free functionality of the terminal, which was specifically developed for use on microsatellites, was confirmed during a test mission in space.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1699086525920-image-1600-66c2779f82a779fcbe74aba8d1b6a0ad.jpeg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The highly compact communication terminal CubeLCT was developed at the DLR Institute of Communication and Navigation on behalf of the company Tesat Spacecom. It is prepared for series production and can be integrated and adjusted with a few degrees of freedom. Credit: DLR (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)"This success is the result of our many years of research in the field of optical satellite communications," says Florian David, Director of the DLR Institute of Communications and Navigation. "It demonstrates the impressive potential for designing small, light and at the same time powerful optical satellite terminals. This is an important building block for future satellite systems, for example for Earth observation or in megaconstellations."<h2>Microsatellite with an optical communications system</h2>The first OSIRIS4CubeSat terminal was launched into space on board the CubeL satellite on 24 January 2021. During the <a href="https://www.dlr.de/de/aktuelles/nachrichten/2021/01/20210124_pionierstart-kleinsatellit-mit-kleinstem-laserterminal-der-welt" target="_blank">PIXL-1 mission</a>, images acquired by the camera system on CubeL could be sent to the Optical Ground Station Oberpfaffenhofen using the OSIRIS4CubeSat laser. Both the satellite and the laser terminal have since undergone extensive testing. Now the tests have been successfully completed with an end-to-end demonstration. The reliability and error-free functionality of OSIRIS4CubeSat in space have been confirmed.Microsatellites, or CubeSats, have a standardised cube shape with an edge length of 10 centimetres and can be extended as required. The laser communications terminal developed in the <a href="https://www.dlr.de/kn/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-17840/#gallery/36173" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">OSIRIS4CubeSat</a> project together with TESAT complies with this standard. The patented design, in which an electronic circuit board was used as the mechanical basis for the optical elements for the first time, made it possible to achieve a high degree of compactness.<h2>High data transmission rates without electromagnetic interference</h2>With a data rate of 100 megabits per second, the laser terminal's speed far surpasses the transmission capabilities of comparable radio systems. In addition to the high data rate, laser light as a transmission medium is unaffected by electromagnetic interference. Channel crosstalk, as often occurs with conventional radio channels, does not exist with laser transmission. This means that laser transmission channels do not require lengthy approval procedures on the part of the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur; BNetzA) or the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).When transmitting image data to Earth by laser, encoding procedures developed at DLR were employed to safeguard the data. This is necessary to maintain stable, zero-loss transmission from the satellite to Earth, since the data must be protected from disruptions caused by atmospheric effects. For this purpose, they are encoded on the satellite before being sent to the ground station using the laser link. There, following reception, they are decoded and then processed. The <a href="https://www.dlr.de/en/research-and-transfer/projects-and-missions/iss/the-german-space-operations-center" target="_blank">German Space Operations Center (GSOC)</a> is responsible for the commanding, operation and support of the satellite. CubeL is thus the first CubeSat to be successfully integrated into GSOC's existing ground segment.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1699086552505-image-1600-a23a7a8f570e1abd2658cf00a0296875.jpeg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The new op­ti­cal ground sta­tion on the roof of the DLR In­sti­tute of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Nav­i­ga­tion in Oberp­faf­fen­hofen. Credit: DLR (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)<h2>From research to industrial application</h2>The results from PIXL-1 show the error-free functionality of the OSIRIS4CubeSat terminal along the complete transmission chain. This will enable widespread use of laser communications on a large number of satellites in the future. The technology was transferred to TESAT even before the demonstration mission was completed. TESAT has since incorporated the terminal into its portfolio and offers it to commercial customers under the name 'CubeLCT' or 'SCOT20', which is a further development of the product.Siegbert Martin, Chief Technology Officer at TESAT said: "This underlines the great opportunities that arise from cooperation between research and industry in Germany."

The PIXL-1 small satellite can acquire images of the Earth with a high-resolution camera and send them to the Optical Ground Station Oberpfaffenhofen with the CubeLCT via a laser link. Credit: DLR (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Small satellites are becoming increasingly compact and powerful. The technology of conventional radio channels is reaching its limits due to the rising number of satellites.

Demonstration of data transmission from a microsatellite by laser

In this episode, we discuss a joint endeavor led by ETH Zurich to leverage robotic teams to explore the lunar surface for precious materials.

Podcast: Robotic Pioneers on the Moon's Surface

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Qoitech

READY Robotics

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space

James Webb Space Telescope aims to take us to the unexplored realm of our cosmic origins. From observing the formation of the first stars and galaxies to looking for the possibility of life on other planets, the telescope will play a major role in the future of space exploration.