Pop-up robots enable extreme terrain science

A NASA-led team is designing an extremely compact origami rover for new extreme terrain applications in both the planetary and Earth science domains. PUFFERs (Pop-Up Flat Folding Explorer Robots) utilize a folding printed circuit board (PCB) as the rover chassis, which enables the platform to fold into a minuscule, palm-sized volume. With this feature, many PUFFERs can be integrated into future spacecraft or packed into Earth science experiments at low cost.