GIVE a robot a sense of itself and it should be able to move across distant planets more speedily than today’s snail-paced rovers.
NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity, for example, are still stuck in the slow lane as they trundle round Mars. Every 10 seconds of motion has to be followed by 20 seconds at rest to scan the area ahead for hazards.
Now Josh Bongard of the University of Vermont, Burlington, has come up with a strategy for a speedier rover. Building on his idea of a rover that constructs a software model of its own body he has…
