Antarctica looks all nice and smooth, but lurking beneath the snow are the gaping maws of crevasses of doom. Doom, I say! And it’s not just me saying it: the threat of crevasses means that moving anything from one place to another on the ground is a slow, potentially deadly process. That’s why some researchers from Dartmouth came up with Yeti, a GPS-guided robot that can drag a ground-penetrating radar around to detect impending doom. The driver in the snowcat follows behind Yeti, and if Yeti detects a crevasse, or if it suddenly disappears, then it’s time to find an alternate route. And it’s not just about safety: flying supplies all over the place (the safest way to move stuff around the Antarctic) is very expensive, and letting Yeti lead supply convoys instead saves about $2 million in logistical costs per year, says the NSF. Not bad for a robot that costs just $25,000.

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