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Introduction Exploring Mount Erebus by Walking Robot In Robotics and Autonomous Systems and in the The Robotics Institute 1992 Anuual Research Review as “Dante’s Expediton to Mount Erebus” Exploring Mount Erebus by Walking Robot David Wettergreen, Chuck Thorpe, and Red Whittaker The Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University Dante is a tethered walking robot capable of climb- project was an ambitious attempt to proceed, in 10 ing steep slopes. In 1992 it was created at Carnegie months, from idea to implementation. The culmina- Mellon University and deployed in Antarctica to tion was an expedition to an active volcano, Mount explore an active volcano, Mount Erebus. The Erebus, in Antarctica. Dante project’s robot science objectives were to In terms of robot science, the objectives were to demonstrate a real exploration mission, rough ter- demonstrate a real exploration mission, rough ter- rain locomotion, environmental survival, and self- rain locomotion, environmental survival, and self- sustained operation in the harsh Antarctic climate. sustained operation in the cold, windy, bright, rug- The volcano science objective was to study the ged Antarctic environment. The expedition to unique convecting magma lake inside Mount Ere- Mount Erebus was indeed a real mission. Dante bus’ inner crater. The expedition demonstrated the climbed into the steep sided crater, surviving the advancing state-of-art in mobile robotics and the environment and operating in a self-sustaining man- future potential of robotic explorers. This paper ner until the failure of a critical component, the details our objectives, describes the Dante robot, communications tether, necessitated rescue and the overviews what happened on the expedition and premature termination of the crater exploration. discusses what did and didn’t work. The volcano science objectives were also real and We would like to acknowledge the people whose involved the study of Mount Erebus’ unique con- contributions made Dante and the expedition to vecting magma lake. Dante was equipped with Mount Erebus possible. The mechanism was 2 instruments to determine the chemical and isotopic designed and assembled by Eric Hoffman of K T composition of gas generated by the volcano’s Inc., Matt Arnold, Tad Dockstader, and Dimitrios magma lake, to measure the radioactivity of materi- Apostolopoulous. The electronics were fabricated als near the lake and to measure the temperature of by Bryon Smith, Dan Christian and Scott Boehmke. the magma itself. Paul Keller, Jay West, Chris Fedor, Bill Ross, Dan Christian, and Henning Pangels implemented soft- Dante can rappel up and down steep slopes and sur- ware so that Dante could sense, plan, communicate, mount obstacles as large as 1 meter in height. It can and walk. Leslie Thorpe sewed weatherproof cov- perceive and model the terrain around it using a ers. Chuck Whittaker of RedZone Robotics Inc., scanning laser rangefinder and a trinocular camera Rob McWilliams, and Jim Osborn managed the system. Its planning software determines safe paths project. Jim Martin, Gary Baun, Brian Albrecht, and adjusts the gait to avoid obstacles. While some Jim Frazier, Bob Smith and others at Carnegie Mel- of its computers reside off-board at a base station lon provided critical assistance whenever it was and are linked via a fiber optic cable, Dante is com- needed. The Erebus expedition group included Red putationally self-sufficient, able to chart its own Whittaker, David Wettergreen and Dan Christian course, react to perceived terrain, and acquire data from Carnegie Mellon, Eric Hoffman from K2T from science payload sensors. Dante’s eight panto- Inc., Phil Kyle, Bill McIntosh, Nelia Dunbar and graphic legs are organized in frames of four—an Ken Sims from New Mexico Institute of Mining inner frame and an outer frame—with each coupled and Technology, and David Lavery, and Steve through a drivetrain that provides an intrinsic walk- Thompson from NASA. ing motion. To walk, four legs simultaneously lift Introduction In 1992 a walking robot named Dante1 was 1. The robot is named Dante in reference to the poem, The Divine designed and built at Carnegie Mellon University. Comedy by Dante Alegheri, in which Dante travels to the underworld. Erebus is a cloud of mist that obscures the entry to hell. Early mis- Using a tensioned tether, Dante can ascend and sion scenarios also had a transport robot named Virgil for the Roman descend steep slopes. It is designed to rappel into poet who guides Dante during his quest. In keeping with the theme, and explore active volcanic craters. The Dante the cart used to carry Dante around is called Geryon after a flying dae- mon who gave Dante a lift. 1 of 12 and reach forward while the other four supporting cold. In terms of survival, Dante’s weakness may be legs propel the body. Each of the legs can individu- that building it fast and cheap came at the expense ally adjust its height to avoid obstacles in the ter- of redundancy. The design approach was to choose rain. On steep slopes the tensioned tether provides a single solutions, do the best design possible, make reactive force to gravity, assists in maintaining equi- it reliable, and have very few redundant compo- librium, and allows Dante to rappel like a mountain nents. Such a strategy is also dictated when system climber weight is a guiding concern as the logistics of an This paper briefly introduces our objectives and expedition made it this time. It is a weakness Mount Erebus, describes the Dante robot, over- because it means that single points of system failure views the software system that enabled Dante to will exist. walk, and then describes what happened on Erebus An essential feature of an explorer is its ability to and what we learned. sustain itself for extended periods of time. Our goal Robot Science was to embody Dante with sufficient perceptive and planing ability to sustain operation. Dante is Objectives equipped with perceptive sensors so that it can There are a number of technical challenges in sense its and environment and proprioceptive sen- designing a robot that can rappel into the extreme sors so that it can sense itself. It has on-board com- terrain and environment of a volcanic crater and puting to provide it with basic capabilities for survive. These challenges aligned with our objec- motion. It has sufficient sensing in its feet alone to tive to show that a robot explorer could perform an allow it to grope through the terrain blindly. Using actual exploration mission, that it could handle the its perception and planning abilities Dante can walk terrain and the environment and that it could sustain autonomously. Without much direction from opera- itself. We wished to demonstrate that a walking tors, it should be able to keep going in all but the robot could traverse the rough terrain and steep most difficult of situations. slopes typified by volcanic craters, something Scenario beyond what had been or could be shown in the controlled setting of a laboratory. The terrain of a An untethered robotic device that can climb sheer volcanic crater requires that all we have learned cliff walls is well beyond the state-of-art. We deter- about legged locomotion be put into practice. In mined the safest and most robust method for explor- addition, the steepness of the slope requires the ing a crater would be to rappel down the rock face addition of a tensioned tether for support. The coor- as a human climber would. Early in the project, we dination of this element adds complexity but further envisioned the following scenario. enhances capability of the explorer. At the beginning of the deployment, Dante would Antarctica presents environmental challenges be transported to the crater rim. In order to descend unmet by robotic explorers. The low temperature, the steep walls, Dante’s tether, anchored at the rim, high wind force, intense brightness, and extreme would remain under tension to support much or all terrain are daunting. This severe setting forces of the robot’s weight just like a climbing rope. The issues of environmental survival as well as self-sus- terrain outside the crater, between the mountainside tained operation. To be viable, an explorer must be control station and the summit, might consist of to be rugged and reliable. We wished to take on the patches of snow, large boulders and much rock difficulties of ruggedizing the robot to environmen- debris comparable to a plowed field. A fiber optic tal in order to further the reliability of robots in the line would be strung between the summit and the field. The survival and success of an extended station across this terrain. In order to reduce weight robotic exploration in Antarctica lends credibility to and to allow for long-duration operation, power and the use of robotic explorers and advances the state- high level computing would remain off the robot of-art for terrestrial, lunar and planetary missions. and be transmitted to the robot via the tether. Although it is a prototype, Dante is not a laboratory The robot would descend the crater wall unreeling device—it is a field-worthy robot. Its components tether as it proceeded. The crater walls may have ° ° are selected to withstand the harsh environment slopes between 50 -90 and be composed of both inside a volcano. Its enclosures are sealed and ice and rock. These walls would have embedded heated. Its lenses are coated against the acidic lava bombs and possibly fumarole fed ice towers plume. The metallic surfaces are anodized to harden that must be negotiated. We hoped to find a descent ° them. The computing is specially rated for extreme route of approximately 75 that would drop from 2 of 12 the rim all the way to the bottom of the crater with- out any major obstructions or overhangs.
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