Snowmote a snowmobile robot

With the rapid advancements in science and technology almost the entire Earth has been explored. But the exploration of the continent Antarctica still pose problems to most of the researchers due to nasty weather and with slippery terrain that constantly cracks and shifts.

Technical researchers at Georgia have proposed Snomotes- a small robot designed like a snowmobile will be able to deal with the drastic conditions there. After a lot of bulky designs they could develop 2 feet long robots with sensors, cameras and gauges attached to it. They envision dozens of Snomotes exploring and navigating on the icy surface deciding upon the way to carry out there tasks.

Next challenge was how will these robots navigate? There was a suggestion that the rocks on the surface would guide them but it dint not work out on such vast icy areas. Later they discovered the use of microscopic fissures in the ice and snow banks to guide their way. Simulations have been effective but lot of challenges await when they are put in real-time conditions. The researchers hope the robots will ultimately cost around $10,000, relatively cheap for governments.

According to Ayana Howard, professor at Georgia tech in Atlanta - for scientists to say with certainty how climate change is affecting the ice, they need plenty of accurate data points to create climate models.She envisions a field of 40 to 50 of the Snomotes wandering icy plains, a small army gathering data to shed light on global warming and other quandaries without breaking the bank.

"The whole concept is: How do you do this in the most affordable way?" she said.