The European Space Agency ESA has unveiled the latest prototypes for a robotic rover that is due to land on Mars in 2015. The Mars robot's most important innovations concern its maneuverability: The rover has six wheels which can be rotated individually, allowing the robot to turn on the spot and move sideways like a crab. In addition the robot has a "wheel walking capability", which allows the robot to anchor itself with five of its wheels and inch each wheel forward one at a time, to crawl over an obstacle.
The novel hardware is complemented with a unique intelligent navigation system which enables the robot to take some decisions autonomously, avoiding the 20 minute delay for an instruction sent from Earth to arrive at Mars.
More infos plus a video at the BBC.