Another fascinating speaker turns up at ITP! Dustyn Roberts, an engineer from Honeybee Robotics, came to talk about her work. Her most high-profile work so far has been to build the Rock Abrasion Tool for the Mars Rovers, still operating on the red planet.
She discussed her current project, a self-contained core drilling robot called “Inchworm”. This device can burrow deep underground, without needing a continuous pipe trail or a gantry on the surface. It may fly to Mars sometime in the next few years.
Dustyn will be teaching a course on mechanisms at ITP next semester, I hope to take it!