After nearly two months of trials, the long-range polar roaming robot independently developed by the State Key Laboratory of Robotics of the Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, successfully passed the "physical quality" test in Antarctica for the first time in the inland ice sheet area was sucessfully walking for 30 kilometers autonomously.

       It can walk in extremely cold weather at minus 40°C.

       The long-range ice cap roaming robot looks like an orange-red crawler buggy with a weight of about 0.5 tons. It consists of a crawler-type mobile system, autonomous driving system, a remote communication system and a load system. It is also equipped with a self-driving system that can operate normally in the low temperature environment at minus 40 °C.

     Bu Chunguang and Chen Cheng of Shenyang Institute of Automation are the site executors of the field research and application research project for polar robots. From December 9, 2011 to February 5 this year, they set up near Zhongshan Station and inland. In the ice sheet area near the ground, the robot was tested for moving mechanism performance, ice-fighting radar carrying test and long-distance autonomous walking test, and the expected test results were achieved.

       Bu Chunguang said that the Antarctic ice sheet environment is a complex field environment. The biggest difficulty in this experiment is how robots characterize and understand complex environments and make reasonable decisions.

       Specifically, the test area on the Antarctic ice sheet is interspersed with ice cracks, snow melting holes, and human obstacles such as containers and oil tanks. These are obstacles that the robot needs to recognize and avoid when walking autonomously.

       Want to test 60,000 square kilometers ice shelf

       The crawler mechanism of the robot is equivalent to the foot of the robot, the sensor system is equivalent to the eye of the robot, and the autonomous control computer system is equivalent to the brain of the robot, and each unit coordinates the work to complete the test task.

       "Now the robot has feet, but the eyes are not sensitive enough, and the brain needs to be further strengthened." Bu Chunguang said that after returning to China, the system design of the robot will be improved and applied to the subsequent Antarctic expedition work.

       It is reported that the ultimate goal of the long-range polar roaming robot is to conduct an independent scientific investigation on the Emery Ice Shelf area of about 60,000 square kilometers. The autonomous walk of 30 kilometers in the inland ice sheet area is only the beginning.

        After returning to China, the researchers will continue to improve and optimize the robot design based on the data obtained from this test. As an intelligent equipment, the robot can extend the eyes and hands of scientists, and realize the functions of roaming, observation, sampling etc. It is of great significance for large-scale and deep-level polar exploration. Robot can also avoid the extremely harsh climate and nature condition that will bring risks to the examiners.