Bouncing robots may soon replace rovers on NASA missions

Researchers are in works to develop bouncing robots that may replace rovers on NASA's future missions.

Researchers at NASA and the University of California at Berkeley are developing a robot that's robust enough to be dropped directly onto planets and go straight to work, PC World reported.

Bouncing robot 2 Martyn Williams, prototype tensegrity robot developed by UC Berkeley can bounce and roll around by adjusting tension on cables.

In contrast, prototypes of the new robot resemble something a child might make in a craft class, one was a mass of wires, control cables and Lego bricks, but what it lacks in appearance it more than makes up for in physics.

The six rods and 24 cables that links them was under a mix of tension and compression make the device incredibly resilient to impacts.

Being robust enough to survive a drop onto a planet also means the robots are plenty robust enough to roll around a planet's surface without getting into trouble.

They move by adjusting the tension in the cables, which has the effect of changing the shape of the robot so its balance shifts and it falls to one side.

Existing robots are very carefully controlled because one small mistake could literally halt a multi-million dollar research program.