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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."

13 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 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.

  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 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. 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.

  4. 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.

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    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).

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      Suck figs.
  5. 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.

  6. 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?

  7. 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
  8. 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."