Dante 2 Legged Robot

Dante 2 was a legged robot designed to explore the hostile terrain of volcanoes on Earth. A similar robot could be used on Venus. Follow the link to see an account of the robot and its capabilities.

Abstract "Dante II is a unique walking robot that provides important insightinto high-mobility robotic locomotion and remote robotic exploration.Dante II’s uniqueness stems from its combined legged andrappelling mobility system, its scanning-laser rangefinder, and itsmultilevel control scheme. In 1994 Dante II was deployed and successfullytested in a remote Alaskan volcano, as a demonstration ofthe fieldworthiness of these technologies. For more than five daysthe robot explored alone in the volcano crater using a combinationof supervised autonomous control and teleoperated control. Humanoperators were located 120 km distant during the mission. Thisarticle first describes in detail the robot, support systems, controltechniques, and user interfaces. We then describe results from thebattery of field tests leading up to and including the volcanic mission.Finally, we put forth important lessons which comprise the legacyof this project. We show that framewalkers are appropriate for rappellingin severe terrain, though tether systems have limitations. Wealso discuss the importance of future “autonomous” systems to realizewhen they require human support rather than relying on humansfor constant oversight."