{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,2]],"date-time":"2026-05-02T09:55:21Z","timestamp":1777715721895,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":21,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2000,11,1]],"date-time":"2000-11-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":973036800000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["The International Journal of Robotics Research"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2000,11]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Meteorites are the only significant source of material from other planets and asteroids, and therefore are of immense scientific value. Antarctica\u2019s 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 article, we describe the robotic technologies and field demonstration that enabled the first discovery of Antarctic meteorites by a robot. Using a novel autonomous control architecture, specialized science sensing, combined manipulation and visual servoing, and Bayesian classification, the Nomad robot found and classified five indigenous meteorites during an expedition to the remote site of Elephant Moraine in January 2000. This article first overviews Nomad\u2019s mechatronic systems and details the control architecture that governs the robot\u2019s autonomy and classifier that enables the autonomous interpretation of scientific data. It then focuses on the technical results achieved during field demonstrations at Elephant Moraine. Finally, the article discusses the benefits and limitations of robotic autonomy in science missions. Science autonomy is shown as a capable and expandable architecture for exploration and in situ classification. Inefficiencies in the existing implementation are explained with a focus on important lessons that outline future work.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/02783640022067940","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2003,7,19]],"date-time":"2003-07-19T02:59:46Z","timestamp":1058583586000},"page":"1015-1032","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":39,"title":["Technology and Field Demonstration of Robotic Search for Antarctic Meteorites"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"19","author":[{"given":"Dimitrios S.","family":"Apostolopoulos","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Michael D.","family":"Wagner","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Benjamin N.","family":"Shamah","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Liam","family":"Pedersen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Kimberly","family":"Shillcutt","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"William L.","family":"Whittaker","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2000,11,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"atypb1","unstructured":"Apostolopoulos, D., Wagner, M., Whittaker, W. 1999. Technology and field demonstration results in the robotic search for antarctic meteorites . Proceedings of the International Conference on Field and Service Robotics, Pittsburgh, PA, pp. 185\u2013190 ."},{"key":"atypb2","unstructured":"Charniak, E. 1991. Bayesian networks without tears . AI Magazine 12(4): 50\u201363 ."},{"key":"atypb3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Cheeseman, P., Kelly, J., Self, M., Stutz, J., Taylor, W., and Freeman, D. 1988. Auto Class: A Bayesian classification system . Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Machine Learning, Ann Arbor, MI, pp. 54\u201364 .","DOI":"10.1016\/B978-0-934613-64-4.50011-6"},{"key":"atypb4","unstructured":"Coulter, R. 1992 (January). Implementation of the pure pursuit path tracking algorithm. Technical Report CMU-RITR-92-01, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA ."},{"key":"atypb5","unstructured":"Deans, M. 1998. Web page: http:\/\/www.frc.ri.cmu.edu\/projects\/meteorobot\/Expedition97\/Experiment_Panoramic\/Experiment_Panoramic.html, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA."},{"key":"atypb6","unstructured":"Dietrich, R., and Skinner, B. 1979. Rocks and Minerals. New York: John Wiley ."},{"key":"atypb7","unstructured":"Gat, E. 1998. On three-layer architectures. In AI and Mobile Robots, ed. D. Kortenkamp, P. Bonasso, and R. Murphy. Cambridge, MA: MIT\/AAAI Press ."},{"key":"atypb8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hart, P., Nilsson, N., and Raphael, B. 1968. A formal basis for the heuristic determination of minimum cost paths . IEEE Transactions on Systems Science and Cybernetics SSC-4(2): 100\u2013107 .","DOI":"10.1109\/TSSC.1968.300136"},{"key":"atypb9","unstructured":"Moorehead, S., Simmons, R., Apostolopoulos, D., and Whittaker, W. 1999. Autonomous navigation field results of a planetary analog robot in Antarctica . International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space, Noordwijk, Holland, pp. 237\u2013242 ."},{"key":"atypb10","unstructured":"Moravec, H. 1989. Certainty grids for sensor fusion in mobile robots. In Sensor Devices and Systems for Robotics, ed. A. Casals, 243\u2013276. Berlin: Springer-Verlag ."},{"key":"atypb11","unstructured":"Pearl, J. 1991. Probabilistic Reasoning in Intelligent Systems: Networks of Plausible Inference. 2d ed. San Mateo, CA: Morgan Kaufmann ."},{"key":"atypb12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Pedersen, L., Apostolopoulos, D., Whittaker, W., Benedix, G., and Roush, T. 1998. Sensing and data classification for robotic meteorite search . Proceedings of the 1998 SPIE International Conference on Mobile Robots and Intelligent Transportation Systems, Boston, pp. 157\u2013167 .","DOI":"10.1117\/12.335694"},{"key":"atypb13","unstructured":"Rollins, E., Luntz, J., Shamah, B., and Whittaker, W. 1998. Nomad: A demonstration of transforming chassis . Proceedings of the 1998 IFAC Workshop on Intelligent Components for Vehicles, Seville, Spain, March, pp. 241\u2013246 ."},{"key":"atypb14","unstructured":"RTI. 2000. Web page: http:\/\/www.rti.com."},{"key":"atypb15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Shamah, B., Apostolopoulos, D., Rollins, E., and Whittaker, W. 1998. Field validation of Nomad\u2019s robotic locomotion . Proceedings of the 1998 SPIE International Conference on Mobile Robots and Intelligent Transportation Systems, Boston, pp. 214\u2013222 .","DOI":"10.1117\/12.335700"},{"key":"atypb16","unstructured":"Shillcutt, K. 2000.\n                      Environment Based Navigational Planning for Robotic Explorers\n                      . Ph.D. thesis, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA."},{"key":"atypb17","unstructured":"Shillcutt, K., Apostolopoulos, D., and Whittaker, W. 1999. Patterned search planning and testing for the robotic Antarctic meteorite search . 1999 International Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote Systems for the Nuclear Industry, American Nuclear Society, Pittsburgh, PA, April, pp. 25\u201329 ."},{"key":"atypb18","unstructured":"Shillcutt, K., and Whittaker, W. 1998. Modular optimization for robotic explorers. AAAI Fall Symposium on Integrated Planning for Autonomous Agent Architectures, Orlando, FL ."},{"key":"atypb19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1214\/ss\/1177010888"},{"key":"atypb20","unstructured":"Spong, M., and Vidyasagar, M. 1989. Robot Dynamics and Control. New York: John Wiley ."},{"key":"atypb21","unstructured":"Wagner, M. 2000 (June). Experimenter\u2019s notebook: Robotic search for Antarctic meteorites 2000 expedition. Technical Report CMU-RI-TR-00-13, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA ."}],"container-title":["The International Journal of Robotics Research"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/02783640022067940","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/02783640022067940","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,29]],"date-time":"2026-04-29T10:16:01Z","timestamp":1777457761000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/02783640022067940"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2000,11]]},"references-count":21,"journal-issue":{"issue":"11","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2000,11]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1177\/02783640022067940"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/02783640022067940","relation":{},"ISSN":["0278-3649","1741-3176"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0278-3649","type":"print"},{"value":"1741-3176","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2000,11]]}}}