Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Desert Rhex Technical Report: Jornada And White Sands Trip, Sonia Roberts, Jeff Duperret, Aaron M. Johnson, Scott Van Pelt, Ted Zobeck, Nick Lancaster, Daniel E. Koditschek

Sonia F. Roberts

Researchers in a variety of fields, including aeolian science, biology, and environmental science, have already made use of stationary and mobile remote sensing equipment to increase their variety of data collection opportunities. However, due to mobility challenges, remote sensing opportunities relevant to desert environments and in particular dune fields have been limited to stationary equipment. We describe here an investigative trip to two well-studied experimental deserts in New Mexico with D-RHex, a mobile remote sensing platform oriented towards desert research. D-RHex is the latest iteration of the RHex family of robots, which are six-legged, biologically inspired, small (10kg) platforms with …