Autonomous Robot Explores Antarctica

rhet writes "Here's an interesting article about an autonomous robot that is exploring the Antarctic looking for meteorites. So far it has found three of them. The robot, Nomad, is built by Carnegie Mellon. Nomad's home page is here."

Famous Last Words

"If the Carnegie Mellon group finds a meteorite this year, that would be an achievement," said Ralph Harvey, a geologist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He heads the human team sponsored by NASA that has looked for meteorites in Antarctica for more than 20 years. "The robot is still having a hard time figuring which way is up." - From a Post-Gazette article at http://www.post-gazette.com/healthscience/19981012 nomad2.asp It found, what... 3 so far? Not bad for a first run.

Re:Robots

While space exploration sounds like a good idea, there are plenty of areas of Earth that haven't been explored yet. I've heard we know more about space than the Earth's oceans. Exploring the oceans most likely would be cheaper and yield more bang for the buck than NASAs current Mars programs.

Sponsoring nomad

The search engine companies are missing a nice opportunity to sponsor nomad. That would make an ideal ad :)

The first schizophrenic robot???

I guess that Marvin (the paranoïd androïd, of HHGTTG fame) is no longer the only robot with mental problems...

(seen on the p age describing the robot [cmu.edu]) :

> Nomad is a powerful computing platform. Its size allows all necessary
> processing to be performed on the robot. There are four computers on Nomad
> during this expedition. Two PCs running Windows NT control the panoramic
> camera, perform landmark based navigation, and run the autonomous
> classification software. A third computer running Red Hat Linux
> coordinates robot navigation and obstacle avoidance with the stereo
> cameras and the laser rangefinder.
> Finally, a VME processor cage with a Motorola 68060 processor controls
> Nomad's real-time processing, such as translation of driving commands
> into servo motor movements and the monitoring of all systems on Nomad.

Now, let's introduce the schizo robot!!!

And I wonder what effet it will have to make the robot look through Microsoft-coloured glasses...

(Now, I wonder that OS runs on the 68060)...
--
" It's a ligne Maginot [maginot.org]-in-the-sky "

Nomad

"Nomad is a powerful computing platform. Its size allows all necessary processing to be performed on the robot. There are four computers on Nomad during this expedition. ... A third computer running Red Hat Linux ..."

"I am Nomad. I am perfect."

"... Two PCs running Windows NT "

"Error! Error! Sterilze error!"

There is no snow.

It can't get stranded in snow, because there's no snow there. Just ice. Nomad is running in an area where the ice is actually evaporating; if snow was accumulating, the meteorites would be buried and thus extremely difficult to detect. The beauty of the conditions where Nomad (and other Antarctic meteorite hunters) operate is that the sublimation of the ice sheet exposes all the things which have fallen onto it over the hundreds of miles and thousands of years before. The ice flows like a river and brings everything to that one area, like streams washing gold dust into every crevice in the stream bed. To a meteoriticist, this is just like panning for gold
--

The expedition

Here [bigsignal.net] is the official website for the expedition.


Pablo Nevares, "the freshmaker".

BEAM

The Smithsonian magazine had a very nice article about Mark Tilden and the "chaotic" robots that he makes at Los Alamos. These robots are called generally refered to as BEAM (Biology, Electronics, Aesthetics, Mechanics). They are relatively simple in design and are made of parts that can be easily purchased. But the nice thing about them is that can exhibit learning capabilities and seem like they are alive.

If you have some spare change, then check out Solarbotics [solarbotics.com]. If you want to build one from scratch, then go to some search engine, and search for Mark Tilden (that should get you going). So get out your soldering iron and electrical tape, and get to work making your very own robot.

Glad to see NASA funding this

This stuff is great - it will lead to the sort of technology we will need to allow autonomous robots to explore other planetary bodies, such as Mars or the Moon, but if it breaks down we can just walk up to it and figure out what broke.
We can work out the kinks here where we can fix it.

Maybe Nasa should try to land some probes on the Antartic from Earth orbit, while simulating the kinds of communications delays we have with a distant probe. Seems like it would be a lot cheaper, and we would learn a heck of a lot more even if the mission failed. One of the biggest problems with the recent Mars mission is that we have no idea what went wrong. If we did it might have been worth the $165 million we blew, at least we would not make the same mistake twice.


-josh

Slight Variation:

NASA Scientists today unveiled a robot designed to find a date for lonely NASA Scientists.

"Quite simply, the robot first searches for certain characteristics," said NASA researcher Jason Godfrey. The robot locates candidates based on a number of factors, including "nice legs, large breasts and what we technically refer to as a 'hot ass'".

Once a viable candidate is identified, the robot moves in for a much closer look.

"First, the robot takes a photo using a special stereoscopic camera and relays back to base. This allows us to filter out unsavory characteristics like too-large noses, unibrows and pimples." Godfrey continued, "if a candidate passes this test, it is further studied for compatibility," including hobbies, interests and ability to perform the Vulcan 'Live Long & Prosper' hand sign. It also attempts to collect information, such as name, weight, and phone number.

Although the robot is capable of parsing up to three blocks of downtown bar area per hour, the robot has yet to locate a single candidate which worked out. "Our most promising subject turned out to be a total bitch," said Godfrey, based on the fact that she gave a "fake-o phone number".

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Images from Nomad

There's a fair amount of information about an earlier expedition with the Nomad robot in the Atacama Desert (including archives of some images from and of it) at http://img.arc.nasa.gov/Nomad/nomad.html

Does anyone else remember a NOVA special on this robot? Or was it about one of the many previous robots from Carnegie Mellon?

Nomad in the NYTimes

There was an article on the front page of the Science Times of the New York Times a few weeks ago. The link can be found here [nytimes.com]. The robot is very cool. And what is really cool is that they allow undergrads to help work on it too.

But what does it look like?

Oh, for that go here [cmu.edu]

Even includes pictures of microscopic interstellar life, err, rock.

Delivery Mechanism

"A highly sophisticated, rather delicate, very ingenious robot that is a credit to its developers and a triumph of Human ingenuity is being tested in the antarctic"

"It was transported there with great care by a number of highly skilled scientists and engineers, who will monitor its every step with loving care."

"Then we'll stuff it on the top of a rocket, do our level best to shake it to bits on launch, expose it to unimaginably rapid changes in temperature and leave it alone for 9-12 months"

"Once we're bored with that, we'll plunge it into the atmosphere of a small planet, allow it to hit the ground in way that will make it lucky not to leave a significant crater. Then, whatever happens, we'll spend the next several months bombarding it with incredibly faint radio signals, just to see what happens. Either way, we're going to need more funding."

Apologies. This is capable of being one of the peaks of human endeavour. But I'm glad I'm not the robot.

Re:check this out....

Two PCs running Windows NT control the panoramic camera, perform landmark based navigation, and run the autonomous classification software.

Humm... here's another quote from the page: "Between January 22 and January 26 Nomad autonomously found and correctly classified in-situ 3 indigenous meteorites. Nomad also found but incorrectly classified a fourth meteorite as terrestrial rock." :) The page also states that Nomad classified meteorite #12322 as "interesting". I wonder if others are classified as "funny" or "troll"...