SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
ProtoInnovations, LLC
5453 Albemarle Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15217 - 1132
(412) 916-8807

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
DIMITRIOS APOSTOLOPOULOS
da1v@protoinnovations.com
5453 Albemarle Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15217 - 1132
(412) 916-8807

CORPORATE/BUSINESS OFFICIAL (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
DIMITRIOS APOSTOLOPOULOS
da1v@protoinnovations.com
5453 Albemarle Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15217 - 1132
(412) 916-8807

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 3
End: 6

Technology Available (TAV) Subtopics
Robotic Systems - Mobility, Manipulation, and Human-System Interaction is a Technology Available (TAV) subtopic that includes NASA Intellectual Property (IP). Do you plan to use the NASA IP under the award?
No

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
ProtoInnovations, LLC, is developing an innovative retractable robotic anchor that works in hard rock and granular soils permitting anchoring and subsequent repositioning of a lander, rover, or other equipment. Our primary goal is to support a number of mission targets to Mars, the Moon, and asteroids. This technology would be particularly useful for missions involving extreme terrain mobility, small body/microgravity mobility, and forceful interaction between a planetary surface system and its environment (e.g. drilling, digging, etc.) These missions are all ranked as High Priorities in NASA's Robotics, Tele-robotics, and Autonomous Systems Roadmap Technology Area 04 (April 2012).

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
A reliable solution to recurring anchoring would benefit various robotic mission concepts that are being developed at NASA. We will work with scientists and technical leads at NASA Centers to promote the proposed innovative robotic anchoring for future NASA missions, including for example exploring the South Pole of the Moon, steep terrain exploration on Mars, sampling missions on asteroids, etc.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
A highly promising spectrum of uses are in securing mechanized systems, positioning transient equipment, emplacing temporary infrastructure, etc., for a variety of applications in the mining, construction, inspection, and utility industries.