| Team Leaders |
 |
| Professor Laura Ray - Team Leader and Primary Investigator |
| A member of the Thayer School faculty since 1996, Professor Ray's teaching and research interests focus on the field of Control Theory. This project provides a number of interesting tasks and possibilities in the area of controls: autonomous guidance and navigation, obstacle avoidance, traction control, multirobot coordination, and power system regulation. Professor Ray's research interest also include active noise reduction, damage detection in physical structures, intelligent control of distributed systems, and dynamic modeling of complex systems. An author of over 40 peer-reviewed articles, Professor Ray is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers as well as the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. |
|
 |
| Dr. James Lever, P.E. - Research Scientist |
| As a researcher for the Army Corps of Engineers' Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratories since 1988, Jim is quite familiar with the difficulties associated with structures in cold conditions and the challenges associated of iceberg and ice-bound rivers Jim has been to Antarctica on several occasions, including time spent with the Traverse Team, where he learned the benefits and difficulties of traveling over the Antarctic snowpack. Dr. Lever has been a member of the project team since its inception and has overseen several other student engineering projects related to robotics and Antarctica. He will accompany the robot to Greenland this summer. |
|
| Graduate Students |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
| Former Team Members |
 |
| Alex Streeter - D'03, Th'04, and M.S. Candidate |
| Added to the project late in the Winter of 2004, Alex has focused on the power system design and control for his Master's thesis research. Foremost in this task has been the design, fabrication, and testing of the solar panels, starting from individual cells and working up to full-sized units, as well as the means to integrate them with the rest of the robot. He will be taking the robot to Greenland in July and August, 2005. |
|
 |
| Götz Dietrich - Exchange Student and M.S. Candidate |
| An exchange student from the Universität der Bundeswehr in Munich, Germany, Götz is working on the Cool Robots project as a Masters Thesis (Diplomarbeit) project. In addition to helping in constructing the chassis and drivetrain assemblies in the fall of 2004, Götz will be focusing on the navigation and motor control algorithm. |
|
 |
| Toni Zettl - Exchange Student and M.S. Candidate |
| Toni is another student on exchange at the Thayer School from the Uni-BW and is also working on this project for his Diplomarbeit. While a great help in building the chassis with Götz and Alex, Toni's area of expertise is the communications (via short range radio and globally through the Iridium system) and data acquisition systems. |
|
 |
| Alex Price - D'04 and M.E.M. Candidate |
| A member of the team since the Winter of 2004, Alex devoted his senior thesis to the mechanical design and analysis of the robot. The wheels, hubs, and drivetrain support structure were developed and machined under his careful eyes and hands. Continuing in that task through the summer, he has guided the chassis through its fabrication to its current form. |
|
 |
| Dan Denton - D'08 |
| Brought into the project in the Spring of 2004 through his part-time work at CRREL, Dan has focused on the control and communications for the robot, both in close-range teleoperation and globally through the Iridium modem. Dan has also been of great help in finalizing the mechanical design. And all of this before he even before matriculating at Dartmouth in the fall of 2004! |
|
 |
| Guido Gravenkötter - Exchange Student - Sept 2003 thru March 2004 |
| At the Thayer School from the Universität der Bundeswehr (University of the Federal Armed Forces) in Hamburg, Germany, Guido participated in the Cool Robots project as his Diplomarbeit (Master's Thesis). Guido's research laid much of the groundwork for the mechanical design and structure of the robot, including the drivetrain design and component selection. |
|
 |
| Gunnar Hamann - Exchange Student - Sept 2003 thru March 2004 |
| Also at the Thayer School from the Universität der Bundeswehr to work on his Diplomarbeit, Gunnar's work included the selection of, and developing much of the framework for, the microcontroller, as well as interfacing it with the GPS unit, and taking the first steps to developing the guidance and navigation algorithm. |
|
 |
| Ben Kasdon, Ian Kahn, and Xianghui Weng - Sept 2003 thru March 2004 |
| During the two-term sequence ENGS 190/290, a requirement for the Bachelor's of Engineering these three guys, as a group, performed a necessary study of the power system requirements of the robot, including experimentation and modeling of the power output of solar panels in during the Hanover winter, when the sun's angle above the horizon is low, the albedo of snow is significant, and the temperature is cold. This work laid the foundation for later development of the overall power system. |
|
| Acknowledgements |
