Robot Ecosphere for Lunar Exploration and Development

Abstract

Expanding human living space and making use of moon resources have been the dream and goal of mankind since ancient times. However, the current level of human technology is not enough to support the large-scale lunar landing and realize the comprehensive development and utilization of the moon. With the development and progress in recent years, the robot cluster technology has achieved a high level of autonomy and intelligence. However, under the harsh lunar environment and the complete absence of human participation, it is still difficult to achieve the long-term survival and development of robots only relying on the current level of robot cluster technology. Based on the principles of bionics and the characteristics of natural biological individuals and communities, this paper proposes the concept of robot ecosphere for lunar exploration and development, which enables lunar robot clusters to emerge swarm intelligence behaviors of life systems through simple interaction, such as self-maintenance, self-replication, self-evolution characteristics and task execution functions. The lunar robot ecosphere is designed and divided into six kinds of robots to realize the closed-loop flow of energy and matter. According to the design results, in the future, robot clusters can be first launched to the moon to establish a lunar base, laying a material foundation for human landing on the moon and long-term working and living on the moon, making it possible for human to fully exploit and utilize the moon.