Bayes Networks on Ice: Robotic Search for Antarctic Meteorites

A Bayes network based classifier for distinguishing terrestrial rocks from meteorites is implemented onboard the Nomad robot. Equipped with a camera, spectrometer and eddy current sensor, this robot searched the ice sheets of Antarctica and autonomously made the first robotic identification of a meteorite, in January 2000 at the Elephant Moraine. This paper discusses rock classification from a robotic platform, and describes the system onboard Nomad.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2000
• Where: NIPS
• Authors: Liam Pedersen, Dimitrios Apostolopoulos, William Whittaker
• Keywords: Eddy Current Sensor, NIPS 2000, NIPS 2007, Nomad Robot, Onboard Nomad