Spider robots for mars exploration

I was wondering if anybody knew whether NASA has tried to develop robot spiders for mars exploration instead of the wheeled variety they currently use.

Do you think there would be too many disadvantages with having spider robots to move around? I thought that might be a good way for a spider to explore a cave system, or that unlike the mars spirit and opportunity rovers the spiders might not be so reliant having only 4 wheels but can have 8 or more legs so it one leg breaks down it can still function. It might also have better mobility- not getting stuck in sand and being able to move around rocks better.

Does anybody know of a specialist online forum that deals with space robotics that may guide me in a better direction?

Nasa has probably tested many different designs. I know that the design of the Mars rover (the six-wheeled robot) is supposed to be as reliable as possible. Mechanical spider leg does not sound very reliable.. it is too complicated mechanically (compared to a BLDC motor in a steel wheel).

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Legged robots suck up more power than wheeled robots too. REmember these are being powered by solar panels.

Another thing is the extra weight and unreliability of a legged robot (from so many more moving parts) is that it has to crash land on Mars, which isn't a good thing when you have extra weight and more moving parts to break.

Rather than having 8 legs (each of which has many more moving parts to break down than a single legged wheel) you could just have 8 wheels so if one broke down you'd still have a bunch left.

I imagine that a legged robot on Mars would perform better than a legged robot on Earth because the gravity is lower. But I guess the distance to Mars outweights that advantage. Someday!

Legged robots suck up more power than wheeled robots too. REmember these are being powered by solar panels.

Another thing is the extra weight and unreliability of a legged robot (from so many more moving parts) is that it has to crash land on Mars, which isn't a good thing when you have extra weight and more moving parts to break.

burgers said:

unlike the mars spirit and opportunity rovers the spiders might not be so reliant having only 4 wheels but can have 8 or more legs so it one leg breaks down it can still function.

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Was this a typo or brain fart? Because I know you know that the Mars Rovers have 6 wheels, not 4 wheels. The first reason are redundancy so if one wheel breaks down the robot can still keep moving. The second reason is climbing ability. Let's face it, wheeled designs currently climb better than legged designs in many environments (especially legged wheel designs like the Mars Rovers). Legged designs are just too heavy and power hungry right now.

Rather than having 8 legs (each of which has many more moving parts to break down than a single legged wheel) you could just have 8 wheels so if one broke down you'd still have a bunch left. The rovers have 6 wheels already and can work just fine if a wheel breaks down (which it has).

THen there's tracks which climb better than anything else. BUt they have their own problems like excessive power and wear during steering, effective tracks having lots of moving parts (but still less than legs, more than most wheeled designs, but maybe on par with legged wheels). Then there's the fact that if something goes wrong with one track the whole track fails.

While we're on the topic, have you seen the snake robots? That's redundancy! PLus looks cool but a crapload of moving parts and no space anywhere to mount anything.