While most experts in robotics feel that the first robots to explore Mars should mimic human intelligence, at least one scientist doesn't agree. Rodney Brooks, a maverick engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, takes his inspiration from insects.
At 3.6 pounds, Brooks's Attila robot looks like a foot-long futuristic bug. It is relatively dumb, and it operates according to very simple rules.
Attila does not need to consult a plan or map to navigate itself like some of the more intelligent robots being developed; it simply moves by following basic reactions that are programmed into it -- commands such as "Move Forward," "Back Off," "Lift (leg) Higher," "Rotate Joints."
As Brooks puts it, "Instead of building the ultimate vision system and the ultimate planning system and the ultimate execution monitor, I decided to build a robot that could go down a corridor without hitting stuff, even when people were getting in its way."
Brooks would like to attach cameras to these small robots. He then imagines sending a whole corps of them to the Moon and Mars. A mission with Attila robots would be comparatively cheap and would spread the risk of failure among many machines. NASA, however, hasn't fully accepted the concept yet, and perhaps never will.
