Hyperion Rover, 1 km On One Command

Posted by Hemos on Monday July 28, 2003 @02:56AM from the planning-ahead dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Carnegie Mellon's next generation robot just finished its Chilean expedition and achieved a new planetary exploration benchmark, including being the first autonomous rover to cover 1 km on a single command. The other milestones from the Atacama Desert, Chile--the driest place on the planet--centered on over-the-horizon stereo navigation, sun-tracking for efficient solar panel pointing, and fault recovery. CMU shows pictures of the robot, called Hyperion, in action. One of its prime objectives was to plot courses that avoid shade, by finding the position of virtually everything in the solar system."

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Sun Guided by FluffyG · 2003-07-28 03:02 · Score: 0, Troll

If it were guided by the sun then if it landed on a certain portion of a planet or moon then it would go in circles because think of earth. The sun rises on one side and sets on the other, day after day it would go back and forth and not cover much ground. I do understand that it can be switched on and off but it just seems a little odd to me how that can be used for directional purposes.
Re:Not the driest place on Earth by Cyno · 2003-07-28 04:18 · Score: 0, Troll

Are you sure its not frozen Carbon Dioxide?

Maybe its a secret Iraqi base holding all the WMD.

GOD BLESS YOU!!!