Autonomous rover for polar science support and remote sensing

This paper reports outcomes of recent field deployments of the solar-powered Cool Robot, which was developed as an autonomous platform for towing or carrying scientific instruments in Greenland and Antarctica. This simple 70-kg four-wheel drive, solar-electric vehicle executes autonomous surveys via GPS waypoint following, while towing or carrying payloads of over 40 kg. Cool Robot conducted over 175 km of autonomous surveys to study atmospheric chemistry at the snow-air interface in the vicinity of Summit camp. The robot also conducted local grid surveys of the Summit ice layer in order to evaluate the potential of using ground penetrating radar to estimate the density of melt channels in the ice layer. Our key objectives were to demonstrate the operational value of a rover to locate subsurface features and the use of autonomous rovers in collecting scientific data from long-duration surveys. The Cool Robot operated reliably at -30 C, and demonstrated good oversnow mobility and adequate GPS accuracy for waypoint-following on a 5-10 meter grid. The deployment results demonstrate that autonomous vehicles have great potential to improve the efficiency of polar science.