Professor of Engineering Laura Ray is principle investigator of the Yeti project, which has created the first rover for Arctic conditions. Engineers from Dartmouth and the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory are in Greenland this month testing the autonomous four-wheeled vehicle.
The Yeti rover. (photo by Eric M. Trautmann ’07)
To be able to navigate in such harsh terrain, a robot must be able to keep its traction on “crunchy, slippery and bumpy surface ice” and also be able to avoid “hidden crevasses which can extend hundreds of feet below the surface,” reported DiscoveryNews. Professor Ray’s aim is for “the scientists ... to use these machines to get to places they can’t get to.”
If the tests are successful, the researchers hope the rover will soon explore polar regions bringing back data on the atmosphere, ice, and climate.
Read the full story, published by DiscoveryNews on 07/12/11. To read more about the development of the rover and the Dartmouth students who contributed to the project, visit the GPR [Ground Penetrating Radar] Robot Building blog.
