Content Summary : ABSTRACT Planetary exploration will become a major focus of space exploration within the next several decades. In order to meet NASA’s future goals, robots must be capable of performing complex tasks such as mapping terrain, constructing facilities, and collecting samples. Current planetary rovers are not capable of meeting these requirements, because their complex architectures and conventional components limit their capabilities. A new design concept for planetary robots has been proposed for highly reconfigurable robots that can perform a wide range of tasks. This concept of self-transforming explorers (STX) does not use conventional components such as motors, bearings, and gears. Instead, compliant mechanisms are embedded with binary actuation. In this thesis, a potential design for a STX using electrostrictive polymer artificial muscles as actuators is experimentally implemented. A two-stage robotic platform with six degrees of freedom and sixty-four discrete states is experimentally demonstrated. The goal of this thesis is to design, fabricate, and test an experimental system to demonstrate a new class of lightweight robotic devices that use non-conventional actuators. This work is part of an ongoing project at the MIT Field and Space Robotics Laboratory to develop concepts for self-transforming robotic planetary explorers (Andrews 2000; Lichter et al. 2000). Space exploration is an important area of current scientific research because knowledge about the universe will provide valuable information to meet challenges of the upcoming century. Over the next several decades, NASA plans to undertake increasingly complex missions for planetary exploration. These missions will require autonomous robotic systems to perform increasingly complex tasks, such as negotiating rough terrain, performing land surveys, collecting samples, and preparing resources for future human inhabitants. Current rover technology will be unable to meet these requirements. Current robots utilize conventional components such as gears, bearings, and fasteners and conventional methods of actuation such as electric motors and hydraulics. These components are typically made of metal, resulting in a heavy system that does not offer the versatility required for future space missions.