Mobile Robots for Polar Remote Sensing

Gifford, Chris; Akers, Eric L.; Stansbury, Richard S.; Agah, Arvin

doi:10.1007/978-0-387-85774-9_1

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Together, these remote sensing techniques allow us to study and further understand how polar regions are changing in response to climate change [Gifford et al 2010]. Finally, there are systems that combine robotics with remote sensing systems to autonomously image the subsurface for polar and planetary applications [Gifford et al 2009]. …”

Section: Application Domainsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accurate, Dynamic, and Distributed Localization of Phenomena for Mobile Sensor Networks

Anagnostopoulos

Hadjiefthymiades

Kolomvatsos

2016

ACM Trans. Sen. Netw.

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We present a robust, dynamic scheme for the automatic self-deployment and relocation of mobile sensor nodes (e.g., unmanned ground vehicles, robots) around areas where phenomena take place. Our scheme aims (i) to sense environmental contextual parameters and accurately capture the spatio-temporal evolution of a certain phenomenon (e.g., fire, air contamination) and (ii) to fully automate the deployment process by letting nodes relocate, self-organize (and self-reorganize) and optimally cover the focus area. Our intention is to 'opportunistically' modify the previous placement of nodes to attain high quality phenomena monitoring. The required intelligence is fully distributed within the mobile sensor network so that the deployment algorithm is executed incrementally by different nodes. The presented algorithm adopts the Particle Swarm Optimization technique, which yields very promising results as reported in the paper (performance assessment). Our findings show that the proposed algorithm captures a certain phenomenon with very high accuracy while maintaining the network-wide energy expenditure at low levels. Random occurrences of similar phenomena put stress upon the algorithm which manages to react promptly and efficiently manage the available sensing resources in the broader setting.

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Section: Application Domainsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accurate, Dynamic, and Distributed Localization of Phenomena for Mobile Sensor Networks

Anagnostopoulos

Hadjiefthymiades

Kolomvatsos

2016

ACM Trans. Sen. Netw.

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“…MARVIN I and MARVIN II, developed by the University of Kansas, are 720‐kg diesel‐powered tracked rovers derived from commercial all‐terrain vehicles and are intended to conduct radar and seismic investigations of polar ice sheets (Gifford & Agah, ; Gifford, Akers, Stansbury, & Agah, ; Stansbury, Akers, Harmon, & Agah, ). Their goals were similar to ours: to improve survey efficiency, safety, and precision compared with human‐conducted surveys.…”

Section: Yeti Design Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…MARVIN I was deployed in Greenland in 2003 and 2004 for evaluation tests. It became stuck periodically, most frequently during skid‐steer turns, and its transmission eventually failed (Gifford et al., ). Satellite reception was good, between 9 and 15 satellites for GPS and GLONASS combined, and within 100 m of the base station GPS accuracy averaged about one millimeter (Stansbury et al., ).…”

Section: Yeti Design Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Autonomous GPR Surveys using the Polar Rover Yeti

Lever

Delaney

Ray

et al. 2012

Journal of Field Robotics

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The National Science Foundation operates stations on the ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland to investigate Earth's climate history, life in extreme environments, and the evolution of the cosmos. Understandably, logistics costs predominate budgets due to the remote locations and harsh environments involved. Currently, manual ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) surveys must preceed vehicle travel across polar ice sheets to detect subsurface crevasses or other voids. This exposes the crew to the risks of undetected hazards. We have developed an autonomous rover, Yeti, specifically to conduct GPR surveys across polar ice sheets. It is a simple four‐wheel‐drive, battery‐powered vehicle that executes autonomous surveys via GPS waypoint following. We describe here three recent Yeti deployments, two in Antarctica and one in Greenland. Our key objective was to demonstrate the operational value of a rover to locate subsurface hazards. Yeti operated reliably at −30 °C, and it has has good oversnow mobility and adequate GPS accuracy for waypoint‐following and hazard georeferencing. It has acquired data on hundreds of crevasse encounters to improve our understanding of heavily crevassed traverse routes and to develop automated crevasse‐detection algorithms. Importantly, it helped to locate a previously undetected buried building at the South Pole. Yeti can improve safety by decoupling survey personnel from the consequences of undetected hazards. It also enables higher‐quality systematic surveys to improve hazard‐detection probabilities, increase assessment confidence, and build datasets to understand the evolution of these regions. Yeti has demonstrated that autonomous vehicles have great potential to improve the safety and efficiency of polar logistics. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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“…The University of Kansas developed an autonomous rover, MARVIN, for taking ice sheet measurements as part of the PRISM project (Gifford, Akers, Stansbury, & Agah, 2009). Like the Nomad, it is equipped with a camera system as well as a laser range finder for obstacle detection and avoidance.…”

Section: Previous Arctic Roboticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing monocular visual pose estimation for arctic environments

Williams

Howard

2009

Journal of Field Robotics

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Arctic regions present one of the harshest environments on Earth for people or mobile robots, yet many important scientific studies, particularly those involving climate change, require measurements from these areas. For the successful deployment of mobile sensors in the Arctic, a high-quality localization system is required. Although a global positioning system can provide coarse positioning (within several meters), it cannot provide any orientation information. A single-camera-pose-estimation system is presented, based on visual odometry techniques, which is capable of operating in the feature-poor environments of the Arctic. To validate the system, a prototype rover was developed and fielded on a glacier in Alaska. The resulting pose estimates compare favorably to values obtained by hand registering the same video sequence. Although pose errors do accumulate over time, these errors are typical of a standard odometry system but obtained in an environment where standard odometry is not practical. C 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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Mobile Robots for Polar Remote Sensing

Cited by 12 publications

References 11 publications

Accurate, Dynamic, and Distributed Localization of Phenomena for Mobile Sensor Networks

Accurate, Dynamic, and Distributed Localization of Phenomena for Mobile Sensor Networks

Autonomous GPR Surveys using the Polar Rover Yeti

Developing monocular visual pose estimation for arctic environments

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