This video documents our field experiments at White Sands National Monument with the RHex robot, in March 2016. It demonstrates the great potential for RHex to assist aeolian scientists in desert research. By collecting data through sensors mounted on RHex, we gather transformative datasets that are required to calibrate and verify existing and future dune dynamics and sand transport models.
This work is produced by Nicholas Lancaster, Desert Research Institute, and will be presented at the 2016 Geological Society of America Conference.
Title: "Measurement of aeolian processes with a robotic platform"
Abstract:
Understanding the dynamics of sand movement on dunes and dust emissions from natural and disturbed surfaces requires measurements of boundary layer winds and rates of sediment transport and dust emissions at high temporal and spatial resolution during strong wind events.
Existing instrumentation has many limitations: installing it is very labor intensive and disturbs the fragile surfaces of interest. Once installed, it is fixed in space, and can only be deployed for a short time. The very existence of the instruments affects the wind field and probably the rates of sediment transport.
Legged robots are agile and have proved to be able to cope with the challenges of a mobile substrate and a harsh environment, and can carry a versatile instrument package to measure wind speed and direction, sand transport, and dust emissions, located in space and time using a high-resolution GPS receiver. We now have a new technology to address a central problem in aeolian research – how to get good measurements of critical parameters in difficult conditions.
We present the results of our initial field experiments at White Sands National Monument and Jornada Experimental Range that demonstrate the unique capabilities of the RHex robot to acquire high spatial and temporal resolution field data with minimal surface disturbance and flow interference as well as to interact with pre-existing surface characteristics and directly measure substrate responses under precise driving forces.
