Tech Directions - November 2007 - (Page 12)

technology today Alan Pierce pierceaj@optonline.net DepthX This month’s column explores the current adventures of DepthX, a NASA-funded robotic vehicle designed initially to explore deep underwater alien environments here on Earth. During dives it now makes, the robot tests systems that it may someday use to explore the icecovered oceans of Jupiter’s moon Europa. The photo on this month’s cover shows DepthX exploring our planet’s deepest flooded sink hole, the 1,099foot-deep Zacatón Cenote, located near Tamaulipas, Mexico. The dives that the robot makes are all critical tests of the autonomous systems that give it the ability to operate without any human intervention. If it is to ever explore Europa, it will seek out and explore a very alien world too far from its human handlers to ask them for advice as to where to go, what to do when it gets there, and especially what to do if it gets in trouble. Bill Stone, a specialist Photo 1 in industrial automation, first envisioned the robot’s structure. With NASA funding, Stone built most of DepthX at his own company, Stone Aerospace, located in Austin, TX. Final assembly contains many offthe-shelf parts, as well as a number of systems specifically designed for DepthX at other facilities. Engineers at Southwest Research Institute, located in San Antonio, TX, developed the robot’s sample arm and some of its other scientific instruments. The software for DepthX was developed under the leadership of David Wettergreen at the Field Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. The explorer, shown in Photo 1, contains 36 computers, hundreds of sensors, 56 sonar units, and multiple video cameras and lights to help it 12 techdirections ◆ NOVEMBER 2007 David Wettergreen, Carnegie Mellon University http://www.sunequipco.com http://www.techedcnc.com/ http://www.sunequipco.com http://www.techedcnc.com/ http://www.techedcnc.com/

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Tech Directions - November 2007

Tech Directions - November 2007 Technically Speaking Contents Direct from Washington The News Report Technology’s Past Technology Today Mastering Computers Video Game Programmers Learn to “Pitch” Project Teaches Students to Diagnose an Ailing Windows OS See the Math with Your Binoculars! Fire Safety Technician ACTE Convention and Career Tech Expo Hands-On Activities More than Fun

Tech Directions - November 2007

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