Lunar Rover Expedition:  Technical Profile
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Carnegie Mellon University
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Carnegie Mellon University brings to this mission its reputation as a
pioneer in robotics design and application, its team of researchers,
and its unique role as grant recipient of NASA's research for lunar
robotics.  Dr. William "Red" Whittaker leads this research as
Principal Scientist with the Robotics Institute, and as Director of
the Institute's Field Robotics Center (FRC), which he founded in 1986.

	To date, the Institute and FRC have worked with agency and
industry sponsors to develop autonomous navigation vehicles for
highway and military applications, and remotely operated field robots
for hazardous waste remediation, large scale agriculture, heavy
construction, surface excavation, and subsurface mining.  Because of
its advancement of field robotics technologies, CMU was recently
awarded NASA funding for the Robotics Engineering Consortium, the
first center in the world dedicated to the development of autonomous,
mobile robots for industry.

	In 1993, the Robotics Institute embarked upon the Lunar Rover
Initiative, a program funded by NASA to develop core technologies
necessary for a lunar robotic vehicle.  Marking a technological
triumph and taking the first step on the path to the Moon, the eight
legged robot Dante II captured the world's attention in 1994,
descending into Alaska's Mt. Spurr and transmitting images and
environmental data from the volcano's crater floor to remote
controllers throughout the continental U.S.

	Dante II established the viability of remote robotic operation
and survival in a harsh environment.  To prepare for the long
distance, long duration 1000km lunar traverse, CMU researchers have
pursued an aggressive development program culminating in a two-month
250km desert traverse slated for public demonstration in 1997.  This
terrestrial rover will incorporate mechanical design, locomotion,
power, thermal, visualization, and communication technologies suitable
for telerobotic exploration in the lunar environment.