Daunte to an eight-legged walking
machine is shown here during field
trials with its action sped up named for
a 14th century Italian poet this 20th
century robot has been designed to
withstand and report on its journey to
the floor of a volcano NASA sponsored a
team from Carnegie Mellon University to
build Dante a robot designed to
withstand Earth's harshest conditions
its goal proved up technology to explore
distant planets remotely controlled from
80 miles away the robot was able to
explore
a fundamental purpose that our program
is interested in is is the robotics
technology itself in the ability of a
robotic instrument to go and do this
type of mission in a harsh unstructured
environment that can deliver a science
payload to the interior volcano
scientists an anchorage 80 miles away
from their remote location controllers
use the computer-generated image created
by a laser scanner to track its movement
educate yes having accomplished one
short-term goal with the successful
descent in the bomb
the robot team hopes to apply the
lessons learned to NASA's long-term
plans for the future our hope is that a
lot of that will find its way into
future planetary missions that's
obviously where NASA's interest lies is
we want to take this and move it out to
the surface of other heavenly bodies the
moon Mars and other planets
Daunte to an eight-legged walking
machine is shown here during field
trials with its action sped up named for
a 14th century Italian poet this 20th
century robot has been designed to
withstand and report on its journey to
the floor of a volcano
Nasr sponsored a team from carnegie
mellon university to build Dante a robot
designed to withstand Earth's harshest
conditions its goal proved out
technology to explore distant planets
remotely controlled from 80 miles away
robot was able to investigate the inner
depths of an active volcano with monks
of steaming vents surrounded by sheer
walls and fractured there's everything
from pebbles to car-sized boulders
rolling down all day long we tried to
pick a descent course that would protect
insulate the machine from most of the
rock fall
one of the robots function was division
levels of volcanic gases this
information gives Mike deepness of the
Alaska Volcano Observatory an idea of
how active the crater might be it has
gas sensors onboard as a software sensor
at carbon dioxide sensors and so that's
going to give us a real close in view
and sampling of what the fumaroles are
made of if you are in the wrong place at
the wrong time the person standing next
to you will die and you won't and so
it's a matter of you have to ask that
question why are you going in to that
zone is it necessary for you to go into
that zone can you do that same
measurement from a safer position
because of the ever-present danger of an
explosion scientists monitored seismic
activity and kept constant radio contact
with the team on the crater rim in 1993
the first donned a robot attempted to
explore Mount Erebus in Oaxaca when its
fiber-optic communications cable snapped
the mission was cut short but according
to CMU's John bears the mission taught
them some valuable lesson we looked at
the experience from daunting one which
taught us an awful lot about what would
work what wouldn't work what was
appropriate for the environment what was
appropriate for the terrain what was
appropriate to take on in a year and
then we came here and looked at the
volcano to improve its systems major
design changes had to be made quickly to
keep the project on schedule it was done
with the help of experts in laser
technology telecommunications computer
software and mechanical engineering
after power was supplied to the robot
from a generator and all communications
links were set
Dante was ready I think we're ready to
stand up and try stroking and turning
the eight-legged crap began its assault
on the crater
at 90 metres special rubber snowshoes
helped a traverse the first snow field
ultimately Dandi spent 3 and 1/2 days
traversing the nearly 700 feet down to
the crater floor an area covered with
gold
information from onboard video cameras
and sensors was relayed the assent light
to scientists in Anchorage
from their remote location controllers
use the concur generated image created
by a laser scanner to track its movement
in addition they had a computer display
that was in effect the robots dashboard
that gave them information and feedback
from all the onboard sensor systems told
them when the legs were in contact when
the ground what angle the legs were
positioned at what attitude the body had
with respect to gravity in the ground
that sort of information
David Lavery is manager of NASA's Teller
robotics program Dante also incorporates
virtual reality technology developed at
NASA Ames Research Center the system
gives the user a feeling of being there
what it is is a pair of cameras that are
set at the human ocular distance roughly
that and then those cameras frames from
those images are sequenced back at the
operator station using a special monitor
and a special glasses so that the human
is able to perceive some depth this same
technology has been tested in a number
of applications by NASA Martian Rover
prototypes and underwater explorers have
been operated remotely using 3d visual
displays and specially censored gloves
artificial intelligence allowed dumpee
to navigate on its own a lot of what we
learned had to do with how much autonomy
can be used onboard a robot given our
current level of technology to navigate
through the extremely rugged terrain
that we saw inside the crater we had a
capability for at least half of the
descent to basically turn on all of the
onboard intelligence on the robot and
let it do its own thing
although the extremely treacherous
terrain impeded Dante's climb from the
crater all science and technology
objectives were completed indicating
that the crater will probably remain
inactive it proved that exploring
dangerous terrain was possible using
unaided robotic technology CMU graduate
student Demetrius apostille Ovilus it's
becoming almost like a life goal every
single person who got involved in in
both projects has made their decisions
to try to make something happen and make
it known to the outside world having
accomplished one short-term goal with
the successful descent into mount
spurred the robot team hopes to apply
the lessons learned to NASA's long-term
plans for the future our hope is that a
lot of that will find its way into
future planetary missions that's
obviously where NASA's interest lies is
we want to take this and move it out to
the surface of other heavenly bodies to
moon Mars and other planets
you
you're the next
just get the wires out we can use them
in addition they had a computer display
that was in effect the robots dashboard
that gave them information and feedback
from all the onboard sensor systems told
them when the legs were in contact when
the ground what angle the legs were
positioned at what what attitude the
body had with respect to gravity in the
ground that sort of information a lot of
what we learned had to do with how much
autonomy can be used on board a robot
given our current level of technology to
navigate through the extremely rugged
terrain that we saw inside the crater we
had a capability for at least half of
the descent to basically turn on all of
the onboard intelligence on the robot
and let us in effect do its own thing
and our hope is that a lot of that will
find its way into future planetary
missions that's obviously where NASA's
interest lies is we want to take this
and move it out to the surface of other
other heavenly bodies the moon to Mars
and other planets