Dartmouth researchers headed to the Greenland ice sheet to give Yeti, their solar-powered polar rover, a workout, ClimateWire reported for The New York Times. Engineers Tom Lane ’11 and Suk Joon Lee ’11 visited Summit Station in mid-July to put Yeti through its paces.
The Yeti rover roams over the ice sheet in Greenland. (photo by Eric M. Trautmann)
Professor Laura Ray develops robots that operate on off-road terrain. (photo by Joseph Mehling ’69)
The project is overseen by Professor of Engineering Laura Ray, who thinks Yeti could help with supply runs to remote arctic stations. “There are things that Yeti can cross that the big vehicle can’t because it’s so heavy,” she told ClimateWire. If there’s a crevasse hidden by a snow bridge, Yeti won’t fall through because it’s so light. ... At some point, we hope NSF will see this as a fairly valuable logistics vehicle that saves money in the long run.“
Read the full story, published by The New York Times on 08/03/11.
