Recently, there have been four separate articles in Popular Science magazine describing different JPL Robotics projects. These are:
- Microspine Grippers - This technology employs arrays of small hooks to grasp rough surfaces in low gravity. It was chosen as one of the ten Best of What's New in Aerospace for 2012 by the magazine.
- Hedgehog Hopper - Contrary to the grippers above, this spiky spacecraft concept is design to hop around low gravity surfaces such as on asteroids and comets. It is funded by the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Program (NIAC).
- RoboSimian - The JPL entry in the DARPA Robot Challenge.
- ATHLETE - The All-Terrain Hex-Limbed Extra-Terrestrial Explorer concept vehicle for lunar exploration.
