Antarctica, the great southern polar desert, holds many mysteries from climatological to ecological.  Cracking these mysteries is limited by the troublesome logistics of sending human explorers out into wasteland where winds, storms, and frigid temperatures could easily spell the death of would-be pioneers.

The Georgia Institute of Technology, collaborating with Pennsylvania State University came up with an exciting high tech solution to the problem of Antarctic exploration -- robots.  They designed a series of small robots known as SnoMotes.  The SnoMotes resemble miniature snowmobiles and are capable of navigating complex terrain and surviving severe conditions.

The new robots will help up the accuracy of climatological data collection.  Data on temperatures, wind speed, humidity, and radiation is typically derived from satellites; however, this data can be significantly skewed from actual on-ground metrics.  While climatologists would like to collect more on ground data, they're handicapped by the weather conditions.  Also, many of the locations that would make for interesting climate data -- such as cracking ice sheets -- are too dangerous for human explorers.

The SnoMotes aren't loners either.  The robots signal each other, forming a team which intelligently sweeps areas, collecting rich climate data.  Their results will help scientists develop a better understanding of the factors that affect ice sheet stability.  Ayanna Howard, lead on the project and an associate professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering states, "In order to say with certainty how climate change affects the world’s ice, scientists need accurate data points to validate their climate models.  Our goal was to create rovers that could gather more accurate data to help scientists create better climate models. It’s definitely science-driven robotics."

A little celebrity is in store for the robots as well.  After their debut at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Pasadena on May 23, they will be coming to an exhibit at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry in June.

Derrick Lampkin, an assistant professor in the Department of Geography at Penn State who also worked on the project, is excited as it will give a chance to validate the ice sheet models, which he studies and develops.  He states, "The changing mass of Greenland and Antarctica represents the largest unknown in predictions of global sea-level rise over the coming decades. Given the substantial impact these structures can have on future sea levels, improved monitoring of the ice sheet mass balance is of vital concern.  We’re developing a scale-adaptable, autonomous, mobile climate monitoring network capable of capturing a range of vital meteorological measurements that will be employed to augment the existing network and capture multi-scale processes under-sampled by current, stationary systems."

The new robots are quite technically impressive in that they're fully autonomous.  Cameras and sensors help them navigate the terrain safely.  Current models have a limited set of weather sensors, but the finished product will have a greater variety.  Howard's team continues to work on perfect the artificial intelligence for the navigation portion, while Lampkin is working on designing an optimal sensor package for the bots.

All the robot's "guts" -- processors, sensors, and motors -- fit into a 2 feet by 1 foot snowmobile frame.  The use of the common frame greatly reduces the cost.  The low cost of the rover will allow more to be built, and it will be less catastrophic if one is lost.  Most other universities with similar projects are focusing on custom rovers, according to Howard, and could not afford to send out more than one in the field.

There are currently three working SnoMote robots.  The size of the final team can be as large as production and funding allows.  Final models may be scaled up to be larger in size.

The robots navigate together via two methods.  In one method robots evaluate various points at which data needs to be collected and "bid" on the locations in an auction like process in which their bid is representative to their proximity and their sensor health.  A second, more mathematical method, is also used which coordinates the robots in a net to optimally cover the target area.

A key new navigation method was also developed.  By using lines in snow banks, the robots can derive distance and direction.  In the absence of snow banks, GPS is used.  The first field testing will begin in Alaska this month.  After that models will be deployed to testing in Antarctica itself.  These models will be equipped with a heater, to prevent the cold from making its sensors and circuitry brittle.

The research was NASA-funded through a NASA’s Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) Program grant.