Scientists from NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, and Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute in Pittsburgh performed experiments with Nomad for 45 days, conducting both technology demonstrations and scientific activities. Nomad often worked on its own to avoid obstacles and, in a clear foreshadowing of the future duties of similar robots, it recognized meteorites planted in the desert as a test and may even have found a fossil. Although the 'straight-line' distance on a map was only about 13 miles, Nomad had to weave through very difficult terrain, and it made numerous sidetrips for science and to test the meteorite sensors. It is a pioneer laying a trail toward future planetary robots, who will be challenged for thousands of miles and years of operations, in bold missions like searching for signs of life. A separate panospheric camera returned more than a million video panoramas from the Atacama, a cold, arid region located above 7,000 feet.
Nomad is about the size of a small car.
Four aluminum wheels with cleats provide traction in soft sand. For this terrestrial experiment, power was supplied by a gasoline generator that enabled the robot to travel at speeds up to about one mile per hour. Autonomous driving is critical for planetary exploration because the communications delay between Earth and planets can be many minutes. With autonomous driving, a robot can explore a much greater distance because it doesn't have to wait for a person to decide a safe route. The high-resolution video camera focuses up into a hemispheric mirror similar to a store security mirror.