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May 1, 2023

Artist's impression of autonomous rovers exploring a lava tube

In this artist's impression, autonomous rovers, deployed by a "mother" rover, place miniature sensors that allow them to monitor their environment and location as they investigate a lava tube. The sensors act like "breadcrumbs," connecting the rovers to each other while they deploy communication nodes along the way.

[Research supported in part by U.S. National Science Foundation grant EES 1809591.]

Learn more in the University of Arizona news release Hansel and Gretel's breadcrumb trick inspires robotic exploration of caves on Mars and beyond. (Date of image: March 2, 2023; date originally posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: May 1, 2023)

Credit: John Fowler/Wikimedia Commons; Mark Tarbell and Wolfgang Fink/University of Arizona


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