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Hyperion Rover, 1 km On One Command

Posted by Hemos on 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."

48 of 206 comments (clear)

  1. It has to What Now? by Jonsey · · Score: 5, Funny

    One of it's primary goals is to avoid shady paths by knowing the location of everything in the solar system?

    I mean, I've heard of over-engineered. But really folks? : ) That's Scalability.

    --
    I assert that my comment is only my opinion, not that of any employer, past, present or future.
    1. Re:It has to What Now? by Mr2cents · · Score: 2, Funny

      After looking at the pictures, the avoiding-shadows-part doesn't seem that impressive any more.. :)

      --
      "It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
    2. Re:It has to What Now? by frovingslosh · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Yup, the same statement struck me as rather absurd too. No only would the stuff you track be meaningless, but say, for example you were the little robot that could exploring Mars and you calculated that Earth was about to eclipse the sun (not that it could be much of an eclipse from Mars' view, but you must be tracking these things for some reason). What the heck can the rover do? It's not like it's going to move to avoid the eclipse!

      And yes, I read the link, it says nothing about this. Perhaps submissions by anonymous deserve a little more editing.

      --
      I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
    3. Re:It has to What Now? by jim3e8 · · Score: 5, Informative

      The article says that the rover is equipped with software that knows the position of everything in the solar system. But it doesn't check them all against each other. It simply means that, given any planet, it will know the position of that planet and the sun, and can therefore find the sun's position in the sky. They did this so it can be sent to any planet, not limited to just one.

      The submitter was a little overzealous in assuming it checks the position of everything in the solar system for overlap.

    4. Re:It has to What Now? by GooberToo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It could go into a power saving mode until the eclipse has passed. If power isn't being generated after the eclipse has passed, it then could begin trying to figure what the heck happened. It can be used for any number of intelligent diagnostic and power saving modes. Also, if it knows all valid times that its cells should be getting power, it can figure out if it navigated into shade or if it's one of the other known events. If it's a known event, it may be able to wait it out. If it's an unknown event, it can attempt to backtrack and report a possible problem.

      Remember, just because it tracks various bodies, doesn't have to mean that it does so in real time.

  2. That's impressive by cybermace5 · · Score: 5, Funny

    It all depends, however, on whether it really was on purpose....

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    ...
    1. Re:That's impressive by in7ane · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's true, from the photos it looks like it just rolled along a pretty much flat field.

      The setup simply looks too flimsy (assembled out of two bikes?) to go over any significant obstacles.

      I do not doubt that the tracking system, etc. are impressive - they've just got to hook them onto a decent base and send it across a more challenging landscape. On the other hand that will seem like a military application then :)

    2. Re:That's impressive by Transient0 · · Score: 5, Funny

      It also depends on whether it can do it across all different kinds of terrain and with some level of reliability.

      I built an autonomous rover out of a Tonka dumptruck once. It could also travel a kilometer on one command. The command just happened to be the ignition switch to the rocket I had strapped to it.

      --
      lysergically yours
    3. Re:That's impressive by Molina+the+Bofh · · Score: 4, Funny

      yes. It was. Its command was "go ahead forward". So it covered 1km of flat desert land till it crashed on the very first cactus that appeared and got stuck.

      --

      -
      Roses are #FF0000, Violets are #0000FF, find / -name '*base*' |xargs chown -R us && mv zig greatjustice
    4. Re:That's impressive by Molina+the+Bofh · · Score: 2, Funny

      You mean like those Acme super duper rockets ?

      Willy Coyote would sure like to get his hands on your rover.

      --

      -
      Roses are #FF0000, Violets are #0000FF, find / -name '*base*' |xargs chown -R us && mv zig greatjustice
    5. Re:That's impressive by Thud457 · · Score: 2, Interesting
      See: "grit trucks"

      (Also look at the linked page with the BB gatling gun).

      --

      the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

    6. Re:That's impressive by cybermace5 · · Score: 2, Funny

      The article did say the researchers "tagged along" taking measurements. I guess you could get creative with your interpretation of "chase."

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      ...
    7. Re:That's impressive by David+Ishee · · Score: 2, Informative

      From my reading of the site, it seems that this robot was built specifically for the environment that it was in. They were mainly interested in testing subsystems and gaining experience.

      In this context, there were no great terrain obstacles.

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  3. Everything? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    "...by finding the position of virtually everything in the solar system."

    Even...Uranus?

    1. Re:Everything? by Sri+Lumpa · · Score: 3, Funny

      "...by finding the position of virtually everything in the solar system."

      "Even...Uranus?"

      Don't worry, it is programmed to avoid shade so it won't go where the Sun doesn't shine.

      Now if it could find the position of my keys in the morning that would be nice (I'm almost certain that they are in the solar system so it shouldn't be a problem).

      --
      "The obvious mathematical breakthrough would be development of an easy way to factor large prime numbers." Bill Gates,
  4. Stop mixing apples and oranges! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny



    Hyperion Rover, 1 km On One Command

    Posted by Hemos on Monday July 28, @10:56AM
    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."

    Shouldn't that be kilometerstones?

  5. Easy to beat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Park a boat off of someplace deep. Have your AIBO walk the plank. Depending on where you try this, you should be able to get much more than 1km on a single command.

  6. Yes, but.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Can it find a decent pan-galactic gargle blaster?

  7. Not impressed... by American+AC+in+Paris · · Score: 2, Funny
    Pssh, we've had automated rover technology since, what, 1979?

    This 'new' model doesn't even have a "Photon" Cannon!

    --

    Obliteracy: Words with explosions

  8. Not the driest place on Earth by haz-mat · · Score: 5, Informative

    It is a widely held misconception that the Atacam desert in Chile is the driest place on Earth, in fact the driest place on Earth is in the center of Antartica where there has been no percipitation in over 10,000 years.

    1. Re:Not the driest place on Earth by YomikoReadman · · Score: 5, Informative

      Antarctica is only the driest place on Earth if you go by annual rainfall. The Atacam desert is the driest place on earth counting humidity. Besides, Last time i checked, Antarctica was covered in snow, which if I'm not mistaken is ice, which I'm quite sure is nothing more than frozen water.

      --
      I have no regrets, this is the only path.
      My whole life has been "UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS"
    2. Re:Not the driest place on Earth by haz-mat · · Score: 5, Informative

      Evidence for those who disbelieve:
      One interior region of the Antarctic is known as The Dry Valleys. These valleys have not seen rainfall in over two million years. With the exception of one valley, whose lakes are briefly filled with water by inland flowing rivers during the summer, the Dry Valleys contain no moisture (water, ice, or snow).
      Please see the following as well:
      http://www.atmos.umd.edu/~owen/MD2001/ANTAR CTIC/UM Handout.Info.html

    3. Re:Not the driest place on Earth by Dan-DAFC · · Score: 5, Informative

      "The Dry Valleys are from north to south Victoria, Wright and Taylor, and they are unusual in as much as no rain has fallen there for at least two million years. They have no ice or snow either because the air is too dry for any to exist (ice-free spaces in the Antarctic are called oases). They are enormous, desolate places covering around 3000 sq km (1170 sq mi) and were first happened upon by Robert Scott in December 1903. He wrote '...we have seen no living thing, not even a moss or a lichen...it certainly is the valley of the dead; even the great glacier that once pushed through it has withered away'."

      From the Lonely Planet guide (for those who want to holiday there).

      --
      Suck figs.
  9. cool ! by jacquesm · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is really cool... but other than that the general state of robotics is more and more hampered by legalities, such as liability insurance for the 'owner/operator' of any kind of robot.

    It's funny how if you look back at the turn of the century there was no legal barrier to try out new technological stuff, but just try to imagine the then inventors of automobiles selling their first rickety inventions in todays unbelievably hostile legal climate. The whole technological and transportation revolution would simply not have happened

    That's why we see robots for use on other planets, but we'll probably not see them on this one (unless of course we ship all the lawyers to some other planet first).

    --
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    1. Re:cool ! by Psiren · · Score: 2, Funny

      That's why we see robots for use on other planets, but we'll probably not see them on this one (unless of course we ship all the lawyers to some other planet first).

      Does is have to be a planet, or can we aim it at any stellar body?

    2. Re:cool ! by puff-d-dwaggie · · Score: 2, Funny

      (unless of course we ship all the lawyers to some other planet first)

      Ok, I dont see this as a major stumbling block, nor do I know of any human beings who would object too much.

      "Get Moose and Squirrel!"

    3. Re:cool ! by jacquesm · · Score: 4, Insightful

      no, my premise is that it is no longer possible for smaller companies to bring stuff to market because the first (even failed) lawsuit will probably put them out of business, and because insurance companies will not cover product related liability at a price that will make the product still affordable because of the absolutely ridiculous amounts that are routinely awarded in product liability cases.

      Around the turn of the century people accepted that new technologies and their development incurred a certain amount of risk taking on the part of the public, nowadays we expect to be absolutely safe from the cradle to the grave.

      Lawyers have heavily capitalized on this (especially in the US) with all kinds of bogus lawsuits about product 'failures' (you probably know the various examples as well as I do.)

      This is keeping a whole pile of potentially interesting devices of the market or from being developed at all because the would be developers feel that actually selling their work would expose them to all kinds of harm (especially if they are somewhat successful).

      The 'I'll sue you' attitude is becoming more and more widespread and is having an ever stifling effect on development.

      The only way we are going to go forward is by making mistakes (accidents) and taking risk, not by taking a risk, getting into an accident and then to sue left right and center just to either make a buck or to soothe some inner child that feels wronged.

      Large corporations see the new legal culture as a new form of tax, smaller corporations simply go under (or never even get off the ground).

      It's evident that robotic technology will initially at least lead to all kinds of exposure to risk, especially if we let the devices loose in our urban jungles. But if we do not then we'll never learn what to fix, and the development will be slowed down to the point where you'll be hard put to mark any progress at all since a device will have to be absolutely bullet proofed before it can be sold.

      --
      MP3 Search Engine
  10. Impressive. by rde · · Score: 5, Funny

    Robotic considerations in addition to instrument integration include platform configuration, planetary-relevant localization, complex obstacle negotiation, over-the-horizon navigation, and power-cognizant activity planning.

    We're looking for a manager at the moment with a lot of those skills.

    But seriously, folks. This is quite cool. Its capabilities at the moment seem to surpass by far those of the mars bots that are currently wending their way through space. Am I missing something, though, or have most of those experiments nothing to do with astrobiology? Not a cavil, just wondering.

  11. Perfect... by SuperDuG · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I mean lets face it the smarter robots get the more we advance as a race. If we can understand the minds we program to be able to see the logic or logical answer then we better start to understand ourselves.

    But the problem being it begins to raise questions about the future, if we model a machine after ourselves so much will it be our demise? Science fiction has a way of blowing things out of proportion. When we first started seeing atomic weapons there was a fear we'd destroy the world over and over again, but we haven't yet.

    I think the more we learn to understand ourselves the closer we are to advancing the human race to the next level of existance.

    "Forget about exploring space, we still don't have the slightest clue about our own bodies".

    --
    Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
  12. Re:Mods already? by generic-man · · Score: 2, Funny

    That's the "type R" model. It has special stickers that make it go faster and intimidate opponents in rover street races.

    --
    For more information, click here.
  13. Re:Sun Guided by JJ22 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think that would have to be referring to the ability to detect *locally* where the best place is to stop as sundown approaches (such as not going into a valley if the sun will go down before it can get to the other side, or stopping on a hilltop to catch the earliest rays in the morning).

  14. Position tracking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Actually tracking the position of the sun, moons and the planet it's on and it's own position on the planet (or moon) can be very usefull. If that data is interpreted intelligently, the rover could identify locations that have permanent shade and avoid those. Likewise it could figure out if a location is currently shaded, but won't be in a couple of hours, and decide to venture into that shaded environment. Or it could not go into a location currently under a blistering(sp?) sun knowing that this location will soon be shaded voor several days.

    Knowing the state of the environment and the ability to make predictions in regards to that state are usefull for autonomous machines. (stating the obvious, yes I know)

  15. Stereo navigation? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "over-the-horizon stereo navigation"

    That's like when you can hear boy racers in their Escorts before you can see them, right?

  16. Tommy the Turtle can already do this! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    FD 1000

  17. Scary next-gen by Dirk+Pitt · · Score: 4, Funny
    The successor of the 'Hyperion', naturally, will be 'The Shrike':

    Shrike Rover, 1k Slaughtered On One Command

  18. Is it up to the DARPA challenge? by Jon+Abbott · · Score: 3, Interesting

    A while back there was a story on Slashdot about a $1M prize to the first group who could design a robot to autonomously travel from LA to Las Vegas... From the sounds of it, this might be a good candidate for the challenge!

    --
    Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
    1. Re:Is it up to the DARPA challenge? by RainbowSix · · Score: 2, Informative

      CMU is one step ahead of you. There is already a seperate project devoted to the challenge in question.

      --
      --------
      It's OK to be social, just don't tell anyone about it.
  19. Only thing I could think of... by SuperKendall · · Score: 5, Funny

    was that it was trying to avid solar occlusions by other planets and moons!

    "Response from Hyperion: Cannot execute command, busy navigating 4000km to east to avoid total solar eclipse in 2004".

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Only thing I could think of... by le_jfs · · Score: 2, Funny

      The though I had was the rover busy running at 900mph in attempt to avoid the night.

      Scary...

      --
      main(char O){O++&&(((O-291)*O+27788)*O-868020?1:putchar(O++) )&&main(O);}
  20. Get One For Yourself! by notcreative · · Score: 5, Funny
    Many of you read the article and wondered how you could get one of these to play with. I figured out a quick "do-it-yourself" solution....
    • Fly to Chile
    • Go to the Atacama desert
    • Hide behind a dune (bring water)
    • Wait for rover to trundle by
    • Take the rover and run
    • Possession is .9 of the law
    I call this the "Sandpeople Technique."
  21. I tried this by Niadh · · Score: 2, Funny

    I tried this but it kept running away from my shadow. Then it miss-took my head for the moon and turned south.

  22. Stereo navigation? by four12 · · Score: 2, Funny

    "over-the-horizon stereo navigation"? I can do this any time I want... just listen for my daughter's stereo and I can tell where home is from miles away.

  23. Re:Why Chile? by Fulcrum+of+Evil · · Score: 2, Funny

    I just wonder if they really needed to go there or if they just wanted an excuse to go to the driest place on earth?

    Then why didn't they just go to Utah?

    --
    "We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
  24. DARPA Grand Challenge - Join Team Overbot by Animats · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Team Overbot is developing an autonomous robot vehicle for entry in the DARPA Grand Challenge. 200 miles through the desert in 10 hours - no driver. $1,000,000 prize.

    We have to do a lot better than Hyperion did. 300km, not one. And faster.

    We're looking for a few good people. Hard work, no pay, some risk, a chance for a fraction of the prize. See our current openings.

    We're in Silicon Valley. We have funding, a shop in an industrial park in Redwood City, a vehicle under construction, and six people. We need about six more.

  25. Shade Avoidance by Teahouse · · Score: 2, Funny

    "One of its prime objectives was to plot courses that avoid shade"

    Um, to my knowledge there isn't a single tree in that desert. How do they know it was successful? I am sure they will claim a 100% success, just as I can claim a 100% success when testing my coffee cup's new "don't move" feature. Yep, it worked. It's right where I left it.

    --
    "Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect."- Steven Wright
  26. Personal Probe by Tablizer · · Score: 2, Funny

    Something like this could find my missing socks while I am at work. Finally, something with direct earthly benefits from NASA. For a little extra maybe it will toss AOL disks and empty pizza containers for ya also.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  27. Avoid shade? Hm. by jtheory · · Score: 2, Funny

    One of its prime objectives was to plot courses that avoid shade

    I hope they find it another way to navigate before they send it out to rescue lost hikers in Death Valley, etc..

    - "Oh, thank God you found me, RoboSaviour!"
    - "YES MY SECOND PRIME DIRECTIVE IS TO HELP HUMANKIND. DO NOT FEAR I WILL CARRY YOU TO A HOSPITAL ESTIMATED TIME TO ARRIVAL 62 HOURS"

    - "Wait, second directive? And, uh, wouldn't it be safer for us to travel at night?"
    - "HERE WE GO, SIR. ESTIMATED ARRIVAL CONDITION: TENDER, EXTRA-CRISPY"

    --
    There are only 10 types of people: those who understand decimal, those who don't, and, uh, 8 other types I forget.
  28. Johnny 1? by celerityfm · · Score: 2, Funny

    Is is just me, or does this thing bear a strong resemblance to our good friend Johnny 5 from the movie Short Circuit?

    Now I understand why such a thing would go as to track "the position of virtually everything in the solar system," input Stephanie!

    --
    ...unfortunately no one can be told what The Mat^H^H^HGoatse is...they must experience it for themselves...