PRISM Updates: Barriers presented by working in Antarctica

Speaker: Richard Stansbury, student, EECS, University of Kansas, 2002.

Modified Transcript: We have got quite a few problems that we have to face with sensing in Antarctica. First of all, a lot of the sensors that are normally used with robotics are incapable of working in Antarctica because of temperature and wind constraints. Some sensors, such as certain weather stations can't be used because they can get blown apart too easily. This is because at certain times the wind can exceed 100 miles per hour. So we have to get things that can handle the high winds, as well as things that can handle minus thirty degree Celsius temperatures.

We also face limitations with the general terrain of Antarctica. Unlike most other places, where there is a very detailed terrain and differences in the terrain are easy to "see", Antarctica's surface is primarily just white. This means that things like cameras, which are usually used in robotics to help determine landmarks and also in certain sensors to determine the speed or the motion of the robot, become useless because they can't actually see any change in the terrain.