drilling in a different trench phoenix ' s robotic arm connected with a hard texture that has been excited about the prospect of also uncovering an edge slab . " we have dug a trench and uncovered a hard layer at the same depth as the freezing layer in our other cut , " added washington university robotic arm reporter for arizona , ray arvidson . the arm tried at least three times to penetrate the layers , but was failing . as a result the robot went into a holding pattern , preparing its final summons .
A robotic arm has been used for scientific discoveries.