Team Geared Up

WHISTLER, BC (Geared Up Blog) - The guys at Dartmouth College have been busy developing autonomous solar robots and testing them in Greenland. They spontaneously tried some robot powered snow surfing… only going at about 8km/h

One morning, while taking walking behind the robot and dragging a sled of equipment for quantitatively measuring the strength and cohesion of the snow underfoot, we realized what fools we were to man-haul the equipment ourselves. And, for that matter, how silly even to walk. So, we hooked the sled to the robot and went for a ride. The robot, it turns out, can haul its own weight (nearly 200 lbs / 90 kg) on a sled and hardly notice it…

Snow surfing behind the robot is not very exciting however; it only travels at a slow walking pace.

Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College via Treehugger