Very Good Space Boys: Robotic Dogs May Dig Into Martian Caves

Maintenance Issues for Very Long-Lived Robotic Space Systems

With the robotic exploration of the Solar System well underway, a logical next step is the development of spacecraft capable of exploring the regions beyond the orbit of Pluto (e.g., the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud), or capable of exploring in situ the nearer extra-solar planetary systems. Barring unforeseen advances in propulsion and communications technologies, the mission times for such v...

Mid-sized Martian Basins: a Window into Early Martian History

Introduction: Studies of the compensation state and evolution of lunar impact basins using gravity and topography data have revealed much about the early thermal history of the Moon [e.g. 1, 2, 3]. While Mars has had a far more complex history, it is likely that the ancient martian impact basins also have much to tell us about the early thermal evolution of the planet. To address this, here we ...

Robotic Misdirection, For Good Causes

Deception is a core component of human interaction and reasoning, and despite its negative connotation, it can be used in positive ways. We present our formalization behind strategic deception, one such potentially positive form of deception. We use the Cognitive Event Calculus (CEC) to model strategic deception, building on prior formalizations. First, we provide a brief overview of deception’...

To dig or not to dig.

2013, a very good year

Pan African Medical Journal. 2014; 17:72 doi:10.11604/pamj.2014.17.72.3918 This article is available online at: http://www.panafrican-med-journal.com/content/article/17/72/full/ © Robert Davis et al. The Pan African Medical Journal ISSN 1937-8688. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), ...