Robotic Developments for Extreme Environments - Deep Sea and Earth's Moon

Abstract

Robotic Exploration of Extreme Environments (ROBEX) is a nationally funded Helmholtz alliance pro-ject. It brings together space and deep-sea research insti-tutions. The project partners are jointly developing tech-nologies for the exploration of highly inaccessible terrain, such as the deep sea and polar regions, as well as the Moon and other planets. In order to increase the science return from robotic systems used for exploration, more sophisticated designs are needed which go beyond the present state-of-the-art. Advanced exploration scenarios are defined that finally will lead to demonstration mis-sions on Earth analogue sites. Both communities expect to highly benefit from each others developments, exper-tise and maturity of existing robotic systems, and those being under development.