Contents
20 May 2020
Vol 5, Issue 42
Vol 5, Issue 42
Focus
- Robots and pandemics in science fiction
Recent science fiction illustrates the value of ordinary robots for a pandemic.
Research Articles
- Multifunctional surface microrollers for targeted cargo delivery in physiological blood flow
Leukocyte-inspired microrollers enable upstream propulsion, controlled navigation, and targeted active drug delivery in blood flow.
- Inflatable soft jumper inspired by shell snapping
Isochoric snapping of elastomeric spherical caps enables fast actuation in fluidic soft robots.
- Material remodeling and unconventional gaits facilitate locomotion of a robophysical rover over granular terrain
A laboratory model of the NASA Resource Prospector climbs loose sandy slopes via dynamic terrain remodeling.
- Bioinspired underwater legged robot for seabed exploration with low environmental disturbance
An underwater legged robot, inspired by benthic animals, opens new perspectives for seabed exploration.
About The Cover
ONLINE COVER Space Hiking. NASA's Mars exploration rover, Spirit, traveled over 6.5 kilometers on Mars before its right-front drive wheel failed. Spirit's wheel would remain locked in low cohesion sulfate sands; this lack of mobility signaled the end of Spirit's mission. In 2015 NASA developed the Resource Prospector 15 (RP15), a planetary rover with a drive-train that combines wheel spinning with cyclic legged gaits. Shrivastava et al. built a laboratory model of RP15, called Mini Rover, to test the locomotion principles of RP15 and demonstrate hill climbing on loose granular media. This month's cover is a photograph of the Mini Rover. [CREDIT: CHRISTOPHER MOORE/INSTITUTE COMMUNICATIONS, GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, GEORGIA TECH RESEARCH CORPORATION]
