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DAISY: For the heavy lifting
involved in exploring the

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universe, NASA has the right
stuff...

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it’s the TRIATHLETE Robot and
we’ve got it’s moving story...

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next on Real World...

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? [music] ?

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DAISY: NASA recently spent the
better part of a month in the

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desolate plains of Northern
Arizona, testing systems that

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will one day be used to explore
other places in the universe.

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The event is known as Desert
RATS...

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that’s Research and Technology
Studies.

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And one of the stars of this
show is a heavy lifting

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super robot with a very sporty
name.

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JULIE TOWNSEND: Well behind me,
here is the TRIATHLETE.

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It’s the new generation of the
ATHLETE vehicle.

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DAISY: Julie Townsend is an
engineer working with robotics

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at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in
Pasadena, California.

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JULIE: ATHLETE is the
All-Terrain, Hex-Limbed, Extra-

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Terrestrial Explorer. And this
one is called the TRIATHLETE

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because it has a new feature.
It can actually split

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into two three-legged robots.
The reason that we split it

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into two three-legged robots is
because that’s very

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convenient for moving cargo
around.

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DAISY: So the TRIATHLETE works
like a forklift on

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steroids picking up cargo on a
palette.

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JULIE: Each of those three
legged robots comes up

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and docks the side of that
palette and can carry

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it around. It's very easy for
them to set it

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down and drive away.

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DAISY: This makes it very easy
to offload cargo from a lander,

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and organize it at the landing
site. And it’s versatile, too

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doing lots more than just heavy
lifting. TRIATHLETE can be

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fitted with special tools, to
accomplish all sorts of tasks.

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JULIE: The reason we call the
ATHLETE hex-limbed rather than

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hex-legged is because each leg
can also be used

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as a robotic arm. So what we’re
going to be doing is

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we’re going to drive up to that
cliff face behind us, and we’re

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going to pick up one of the
arms, and we’re going to put a

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gripper on the end of it. And
we’re actually going to pull

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rocks off the cliff face with
the gripper as if we were doing

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a geologic survey of the cliff.

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DAISY: Geologists can learn a
lot about a planet

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by examining cliff faces.

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JULIE: They show the layers of
the rock in the order that they

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were laid down in history. So
they can get a lot of the

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history of a planet or a moon
from seeing the rocks in cliff

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faces like that. But normal
rovers can’t reach the top of

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the cliff faces. So that’s a
unique capability that ATHLETE

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has is that it has a really
long reach and so it can sample

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all the different layers of
that cliff

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all the way up to the top.

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DAISY: Another tool that got
put to the test in Arizona

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is a special attachment that
turns TRIATHLETE

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into a soil-moving machine.

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JULIE: We put this scoop on and
it can reach out and dig a

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trench in the surface and dump
that material elsewhere,

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just like you would do with a
backhoe. It’s one of the

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things that makes the ATHLETE
such a utility vehicle.

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DAISY: When we last checked in
on this project, we talked

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about the mathematical concept
of scaling.

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The precursor to this robot,
known as ATHLETE

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was a 1/3 scale model. This
version is ½ scale.

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The one that would be used for
exploration in other places in

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the universe will stand 8
meters tall.

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JULIE: So it would be twice as
big in every dimension.

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But this one really gives you
the sense of exactly how

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huge that would be.

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DAISY: So you can see the
progression, from the first

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ATHLETE, built in 2005 to this
new TRIATHLETE, which is larger

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and can split into to separate
robots.

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Other additions to this latest
version include stronger joints

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and a new power system.

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The TRIATHLETE was developed at
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in

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Pasadena California, where they
know a thing or two

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about operating robots and
rovers.

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JULIE: We have a lot of
experience with remotely

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operating robots on the surface
of other planets. We operate

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the Mars Exploration rovers,
Spirit and Opportunity.

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We’re developing new rovers to
go to Mars right now.

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So we operate ATHLETE, very
similarly to how we operate the

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Mars Exploration Rovers.
Generally when I’m operating

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the robot, I sit behind a
workstation where I list out

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all the different thing I want
the robot to do, then I send

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those to the robot to be
performed.

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DAISY: Julie organizes the days
commands on a block schedule

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similar to the one you might
use to see your class schedule,

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or to look up TV programs for
the day.

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In Arizona, at Desert RATS,
TRIATHLETE performed many of

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the tasks it will do on other
planets one day.

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It moved cargo, did geological
surveys and even performed a

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docking with the Lunar Electric
Rover.

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You can learn more about Desert
RATS, Robotics

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and all of NASA at
www.NASA.gov.

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? [music] ?

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