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4:00pm, Adamson Wing, Baker Hall
Abstract
The robot Nomad recently set a record by traveling farther than any
remotely
controlled robot has before over rough territory. The robot's four
wheels
logged more than 220 kilometers (137 miles) across Chile's rugged
Atacama
Desert from June 15 to July 31, 1997, during a field experiment
designed to
prepare for future missions to Antarctica, the Moon and Mars. The
Atacama
Desert Trek was an international event that set new standards for all
robots
planning to explore new worlds.
Nomad is the latest prototype developed in Carnegie Mellon's Lunar
Rover
Initiative, a research program sponsored by NASA. The Atacama Desert
Trek
successfully demonstrated several new technologies for planetary
exploration
on Nomad: a "panospheric" camera that takes pictures with a 360-degree
field
of view, an actively pointed communications antenna, a novel
locomotion
system that provides steering and stowage capabilities, a system for
self-position estimation using skyline navigation, and an autonomous
navigation system that enabled Nomad to drive itself over 21
kilometers (13
miles) of rough terrain.
We will present the initial technical results
from the Atacama Desert Trek,
show videos and slides to give you a taste of life in Chile's Atacama
Desert
(both robotic and otherwise), and provide a sneak preview of what's in
store
for Nomad in the years ahead.
Biographical Sketch
Red Whittaker is the director of Carnegie Mellon's Field Robotics
Center and
Principal Investigator of the Lunar Rover project. Dimi
Apostolopoulos is a
Visiting Scientist and project manager for the Antarctic Meteorite
Search
program. Mark Maimone is a Research Associate and was software and
navigation lead for the Atacama Desert Trek. Eric Rollins is the
mechanical
lead for Nomad and was project manager for the Atacama Desert Trek.
For appointments, please contact Dimi Apostolopoulos: da1v@frc.ri.cmu.edu
The RI Seminar Home Page: www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~mcm/seminar.html
Email: robsem-list-request@cs.cmu.edu