Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Path: brunix!sgiblab!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!kronos.arc.nasa.gov!doctor
From: doctor@kronos.arc.nasa.gov (Terry Fong)
Subject: NASA Ames Antarctica TROV Project Status (weekly summary 10/14/93)
Message-ID: <1993Oct17.171413.14790@kronos.arc.nasa.gov>
Summary: status information for virtual environment teleoperations project
Keywords: virtual environments, teleoperations, Antarctica
Sender: usenet@kronos.arc.nasa.gov (usenet@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov)
Nntp-Posting-Host: tardis.arc.nasa.gov
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center (Information Science Division)
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 17:14:13 GMT
Lines: 96

Hi all,

The following is a status update on the NASA Ames Antarctica
Telepresence Remotely Operated Vehicle (TROV) Project. The project is
a remote operations experiment to test virtual environment based
teleoperations techniques in an operational environment which might be
used to remotely operate a science rover on another planet. The
principle objective of the project is to assess the capabilities of
telepresence and virtual environments for performing remote scientific
investigations. Throughout the project's duration (10/5 - 12/2), an
underwater robotic vehicle is being teleoperated under McMurdo Sound,
Antarctica from a control station is located at NASA Ames (Moffett
Field, CA).

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Carol Stoker, Jay Steele, Roxanne Streeter and Don Barch departed 
CONUS October 5, 1993 and flew from San Francisco-LAX-Aukland 
NZ-Christchurch NZ.  Because of the time change we arrived 
Christchurch on Oct 7 11:00 AM.  We laid over for a day in CHCH and 
on Oct. 9 we flew USAF C141 to McMurdo station, Antarctica.  
Because of a late change of aircraft required because of mechanical 
problems, the aircraft departed CHCH at 1500 instead of the planned 
900 hours.  Thus, we arrived in McMurdo at 20:30 on Oct. 9, landing 
at the Ice Runway.   Team members Stoker and Streeter were treated 
to a beautiful view of the Antarctic continent from 20000 ft in the 
crew cabin of the aircraft as we approached McMurdo.

Weather over the last week has ranged from reasonably pleasant to 
quite bad.  Pleasant weather is -20F with no wind.  However, the 
last 3 days have been more like -35F with winds gusting to 30 knots.  
McMurdo proper has been in weather condition 3 (in which no 
operational restrictions apply) but off the base on the ice, Willie 
Field, the Ice Runway, and Sea Ice road has been in weather condition 
2.  In weather condition 2, winds are over 50 knots, visibility is less 
that 1/4 mile, temperature is less than -100F, and travel is 
restricted to "essential for operations", people are only allowed to 
travel in pairs, and only on flagged routes.  In weather condition 1, 
winds are gale force, visibility is less than 100 ft, temperature is 
less than -100F.  In this condition, no-one is allowed to go outside 
and all operations cease except for authorized emergency teams.  
The weather is much worse than any I saw last year, and I hope not 
to see any condition 1 weather.

TROV equipment arrived on the same aircraft as the team.  The 
equipment had to be located, processed and delivered to us.  This 
took several days.  All items were delivered by 10/13, at which 
point we assembled TROV equipment and verified that all equipment 
was still working correctly after shipping.  

In the meantime, we located and arranged for equipment and 
facilities supplied by Antarctic Support Associates, the field 
support contractor.  This equipment included a mobile hut on skids 
which will be towed around on the ice, generators, ice augers,  
telecommunications (telephone and computer) lines, various field 
survival equipment, and a snowcat-style tracked vehicle. for driving 
around on the ice.  The team was trained to drive the snowcat and to 
operate the generators and augers.

A new style mobile hut has been built and we will be the first to use 
it.  The hut is roughly A-frame in shape and has lots of windows.  A 
hatch door in the floor will allow us to deploy the TROV from inside 
the hut.  The cable tending, however, will still need to be done 
outside in the weather.  This hut was still under construction when 
we arrived and will be delivered to us on Oct 16.  At that time we 
will load all the TROV equipment into the hut and on Oct. 18 have it 
towed out to the first operational location on the Sea ice.

On 10/15/93 we went to Sea Ice Survival training.  This was a full 
day course.  Our operations will be out on the sea ice and we will be 
driving back and forth daily from McMurdo to the field site.  This can
be quite dangerous because you have to cross over many cracks in 
the ice.  In the past there have been numerous vehicles which have 
fallen through crack, some of the same ones we will be crossing.
We learned how to determine the type of crack, the width of the 
crack, thickness of the ice, and whether or not it is safe to cross.  
We also learned how to put up emergency shelter in case of vehicle 
failure or the close in of weather conditions that prevented us from 
driving to safety.

The end of this week finds us poised and ready for moving out onto
the ice on Monday.  However, a condition 1 weather forcast is in 
effect which could slow us down.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Questions regarding the TROV project may be addressed to me via email 
(terry@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov). Please excuse sluggish responses since I
am involved in daily project operations.

Terry Fong
NASA Ames Research Center
-- 
_______________________________________________________________________________
 "You do not understand anything       Terry Fong <terry@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov>
  until you understand it in more      NASA Ames, M/S 269-3, Moffett Field, CA
  than one way..." -- Marvin Minsky         (415) 604-6063, (415) 604-6081 lab
