Robotics Technology Center

TRESSA: NASA’s Rock-Climbing Trio

Seeing it for the first time, i thought it was a robot climbing by itself. It was not. Tressa, is the team name of three mobile robots helping each other climb a steep rock of up 90 degrees. A perfect slope for an autonomous robot huh?

Tressa, Teamed Robots for Exploration and Science in Steep Areas, is NASA's latest project for mobile robots for scientific exploration of steep terrains. It is comprised of two Anchorbots and one cliftbot. The two anchorbots climb first and finds a good place to lock their feet. They really look like real anchors made of pure iron. Clifbot, on the other hand has tethers that adjusts to the rock's terrain. Cliftbot is pulled by the Anchorbots with tensions that support him as it moves up the rock slope.

Originally, NASA's objective for this project is for exploring steep slopes on Mars that are not accessible to lone wheeled robots (Mars Exploration Rovers), however, experiments prove that TRESSA could also be used on Earth for performing rescues and exploration on steep slopes that are too remote or too dangerous by humans. Below is a video clip showing how an anchorbot works.