Autonomous Navigation Field Results of a Planetary Analog Robot in America

The Robotic Antarctic Meteorite Search at Carnegie Mellon is developing robotic technologies to allow for autonomous search and classification of meteorites in Antarctica. In November 1998, the robot Nomad was deployed in the Patriot Hills region of Antarctica to perform several demonstrations and experiments of these technologies in a polar environment. Nomad drove 10.3km autonomously in Antarctica under a variety of weather and terrain conditions. This paper presents the results of this traverse, the ability of stereo vision and laser scanner to perceive polar terrain and the autonomous navigation system used.