China deploys robot dogs in simulated moon conditions ahead of lunar mission
Peking University says it has developed two prototypes for exploring terrain considered ideal for establishing human bases
Chinese researchers are testing and training robotic dogs in preparation for future exploration beneath the moon’s surface, an area that is considered ideal for establishing human lunar bases.
Created by lava flows and located in a forest region near Jingbo Lake near the city of Mudanjiang in Heilongjiang province, the cave is “strikingly similar” to the lunar underground environment, according to the university post.
There, some sections suddenly narrow to a point that is impassable for research personnel, so the robotic dogs are deployed as “scouts” to reliably execute surveying tasks that the humans cannot easily accomplish.
Testing their performance in a “lunar-like lava tube environment” enabled researchers to advance the embodied intelligence technologies used in deep-space exploration, said Zhang Shanghang, a researcher at the university and the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence, a non-profit AI research laboratory also known as Zhiyuan Institute.
Zhang, who led the development of the two customised robotic dogs, said these models could navigate autonomously, avoid obstacles, create maps and record high-precision 3D structures within caves.