The Science Autonomy System (SAS) is a hierarchical control architecture for exploration and in situ science that integrates sensing, navigation, classification and mission planning. The Nomad robot demonstrated the capabilities of the SAS during a January 2000 expedition to Elephant Moraine, Antarctica where it accomplished the first meteorite discoveries made by a robot. In this paper, the st...

We introduce a concept of content-based landscape retrieval (CBLR). Our CBLR system retrieves morphometrically similar landscapes from a large DEM thus acting as a search engine for landscapes. The system works on the principle of query-byexample, a reference landscape is given and the system outputs a map showing degree of similarity between a reference and all the other local landscapes acros...

In glacial environments particle-size analysis of moraines provides insights into clast origin, transport history, depositional mechanism and processes of reworking. Traditional methods for grain-size classification are labour-intensive, physically intrusive and are limited to patch-scale (1m) observation. We develop emerging, high-resolution groundand unmanned aerial vehicle-based ‘Structure-f...

Lake Moraine (42 50’ 47” N, 75 31’ 39” W), in Madison County in east-central New York State, is an artificially raised impoundment originally formed by the damming of a valley by the deposition of glacial moraine. This 106 ha (261acre) water body comprises two distinct basins separated by Madison County Rt. 87 traversing a causeway between them. A submerged culvert under the highway joins the n...

We present a Baffin Bay Be production-rate calibration derived from glacial deposits in western Greenland and Baffin Island, and test our results against published Be calibration datasets to develop an Arctic Be production rate. Our calibration comprises: (i) Be measurements from moraine boulders linked to a Cdated moraine at Jakobshavn Isfjord in western Greenland, (ii) an independent and prev...

Meteorites are the only significant source of material from other planets and asteroids, and therefore are of immense scientific value. Antarctica’s frozen and pristine environment has proven to be the best place on earth to harvest meteorite specimens. The lack of melting and surface erosion keep meteorite falls visible on the ice surface in pristine condition for thousands of years. In this a...

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 ...