Alex Foessel, Ph.D. student at Carnegie-Mellon University Institute of Robotics...(Click here to return to: Field Updates)
Written by Alex Foessel, Ph.D. student at Carnegie-Mellon University Institute of Robotics...
The Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) was successfully deployed today at the paleo lake sediment drill site. This is one site where I am surveying the underground in Haughton Crater by using a GPR. GPR is a sensor that provide underground information by emitting electromagnetic pulses and sensing the returning echoes coming from interfaces between materials of different electric properties. For example, frozen and wet ground have different properties. The study of slopes, fluvial terraces, breccia, pingos, wedges and polygons here at Haughton Crater is complemented by investigating what lies under the surface of these features. The figure at left shows raw data of a GPR scan of 6 m. A long a distinctive interface appears approximately half a meter below the surface. We suspect this is the permafrost bed that is deeper near the cliff.
The deployment of the GPR at Haughton Crater was a very useful but repetitive task that demands time from a human explorer(s). This and other sensors mounted on and deployed from a robot would be an excellent geologic tool on earth, or a very necessary astronaut assistant somewhere else. The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University is researching the use of GPR for robotics applications. We plan to mount a GPR to safeguard a robot from terrain dangers and detect subsurface objects while searching autonomously for meteorites in Antarctica. GPR is also used to assist autonomous excavation.
This expedition gives me a better understanding of the performance of the sensor for it's upcoming robotics deployment in Antarctica. I also will return to CMU with new ideas about how robots can help humans do a better job. Exploration and geological research are but a few of them.