The Robotics Institute
 Search the site
RI | Research | Projects | RAMS

Text only version of this site

[Project image] Robotic Antarctic Meteorite Search (RAMS)
This project is no longer active.

Head: William Red L. Whittaker
Contact: Dimitrios Apostolopoulos (da1v@cs.cmu.edu)

Mailing address:
Carnegie Mellon University
Robotics Institute
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Associated centers: SRI and FRC

For more information, see this project's homepage.

Jump to: Project Description | Personnel | Publications

Project Description

The goals of this program are to develop robots for autonomous search of Antarctic meteorites and demonstrate robotic capability with planetary analogs of environment, control, navigation, communications, and scientific research.

Through tireless investigation in the harsh Antarctic environment and using computer sensing to search above and below the ice surface, meteorobots developed in this program will explore regions of Antarctica to find otherwise undetected meteorites. The use of robots will augment the human search for meteorites by working full-day cycles in the deep cold, and by detecting surface meteorites obscured to the human eye by blowing or drifting snow.

In FY99 this program will evaluate the performance of a autonomous mobile robot equipped with meteorite detection sensors at Patriot Hills, an Antarctic site suitable for the proposed deployment and operational challenges. The winterized Nomad will perform autonomous search and navigation excursions, all aiming at evaluating rover gross performance as well as individual subsystems. Moreover, we will field-validate a prototype architecture for detection and classification of native rocks and meteorites.

Past members

Name Title Email Address
Dimitrios Apostolopoulos Senior Systems Scientist da1v@cs.cmu.edu
Richard Blomquist PhD Student, RI
Matthew Deans PhD Student, RI
Alex Foessel PhD Student, RI
James Frazier Research Technician jdf@rec.ri.cmu.edu
Michael's personal homepage Michael Montemerlo PhD Student, RI
Stewart Moorehead PhD Student, RI
Anthony Nolla Technician III, RI/ECE
Michael Parris Technician II
Liam Pedersen PhD Student, RI
Benjamin Shamah Senior Research Engineer
Kimberly Shillcutt PhD Student, RI
Mark Sibenac NREC Commercialization Specialist sib_at_ri.cmu.edu
Reid's personal homepage Reid Simmons Research Prof/Assoc Dir Educ/PhD Chair, RI/CS reids@cs.cmu.edu
James Teza Senior Research Engineer jpt@cs.cmu.edu
Nicolas's personal homepage Nicolas Vandapel Project Scientist vandapel@ri.cmu.edu
Vandi's personal homepage Vandi Verma PhD Student, RI
Michael's personal homepage Michael D Wagner NREC Commercialization Specialist mwagner@cmu.edu
William Red's personal homepage William Red L. Whittaker University Professor red@ri.cmu.edu

Recent publications [View all 19 publications]

The Robotics Institute is part of the School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University.
For updates and comments, please see these instructions.
This page maintained by robotwebmaster@ri.cmu.edu