NASA Robots to Help Scientists Collecting Data in Polar Regions
16.07.2008 - Logistics, Other, Arctic, Antarctic
Unmanned, autonomous NASA robots resembling miniaturized snowmobiles were tested in Alaska last month. These prototypes - called SnoMotes - will help scientists gathering accurate field data in remote or dangerous areas.
The robots are designed to traverse terrain often too dangerous for scientists, in pursuit of barometric pressure, temperature, and relative humidity measurements that will help scientists improve climate models.
SnoMotes could also fill gaps in the existing network of satellites and weather station sensors that occurs due to immobility of the grounded station sensors or remote location and limited resolution of the satellites. Essentially, the robots could act as mobile weather stations,' able to travel to capture real-time data at the spot where change is occurring.
Based on these prototypes, scientists hope to create a low-cost final model of the SnoMotes that will be scalable into a network of 30-40 mobile robots that institutions can use. The SnoMotes project is funded by the Advanced Information Systems Technology program in NASA's Earth Science Technology Office, a NASA Headquarters office located at Goddard Space Flight Center.
