The hottest scientists plan to use swarm robots to

Scientists plan to use swarm robots to explore life in Martian caves

according to wired magazine, a few days ago, scientists believe that using autonomous micro machine crowds like bees is the best strategy for exploring Martian caves and is expected to discover mysterious life in Martian caves

trace analysis of methane in the Martian atmosphere shows undiscovered activity - geological or biological signs lurking beneath the Martian surface. Aron kisdi, an engineer at the University of Southampton in the UK, said: "there is something interesting to scientists under the surface of Mars. We just need to find it."

a research report published in the Journal of Astronautics on March 3 pointed out that robot search is the best way to survey several new Martian caves recently discovered, which can maximize the search scope and minimize the search time. In 2007, NASA's Odyssey probe found seven large caves on the surface of Mars. Because of its size and depth, it was impossible for the probe to enter for exploration. At the same time, the resolution of Odyssey detector is not suitable for cave exploration, but only for smaller caves

the experimental space of the experimental machine is large.

kisdie said: "we have sent robots to survey Mars for many years, but we can only observe a small part of the Martian area." For this swarm robot search strategy, he plans to use a rolling and jumping robot - "jollbot". The Mars Lander can release a small robot to search for caves on the surface of Mars autonomously and at will. Its method is very similar to that of bees looking for hives

when the small robot finds the cave by feeling the temperature difference, it will return to the lander by a shortcut route and upload the coordinates and temperature of the cave wirelessly. Then, it detects the information fed back to the lander by other swarm robots, so as to determine whether to start a new exploration, or survey the caves that have been explored by other robots. If the robot can survey important information on site, it will upload it to the lander and start information processing

after several iterations, researchers have reached a consensus: either send a sufficient number of robots to find a better survey location and upload relevant information to the mission control center, or directly conduct in-depth survey of the established location. Kisdi said that this simple strategy allows the swarm robot to use the main power to move, rather than running programs, and the robot is cheap to manufacture. If the total investment of the project is about 500million yuan and a robot is lost, the search has not ended

David beaty, scientific administrator of the Mars program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said: "it is very difficult for robots to survey the surface of Mars. How to provide power for robots is very difficult. The surface of Mars is similar to the surface of the earth's mainland. Traveling from one cave to another will be hundreds of kilometers away."

Betty is not aware of any bee colony machine currently developed by NASA that focuses on the human search project in the key link of aerospace aluminum research and development, production and utilization, but he points out that if the robots in the KISTI search plan can run for a long time and move flexibly, then this plan is feasible. In kisdi's simulation, 50 swarm robots can cover a search area of 300 square meters in five days. Its search range can be expanded by adding more robots and longer search distance

kisdi said, "I plan to upgrade the hardware system of the robot in the next step. I will continue to strengthen the market of China's plastic machinery enterprises, and will continue to develop and maintain this survey strategy until Mars exploration is realized."