Red Whittaker

William L. "Red" Whittaker is a roboticist and research professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). He led the team "Tartan Racing" to its first place victory in the 2007 DARPA Grand Challenge and brought Carnegie Mellon University the two million dollar prize.

He is currently the Fredkin Research Professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute as well as the Director of the Field Robotics Center and Chief Scientist of the Robotics Engineering Consortium, both located at the university.

He is also leading the CMU team which is competing for the "Google Lunar X Prize". [cite web|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/14/AR2007091400151.html|author=Alicia Chang|publisher=Washington Post|title=Google to Finance Moon Challenge Contest|date=2007-09-14] As the chairman and CTO of Astrobotic Technology, Whittaker will play an instrumental role in further lunar development. [ [http://www.astrobotictech.com/management.html Astrobotic Technology, Inc. :: Management ] ]

Biography

Whittaker spent his childhood in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, where his father was a salesman for explosives and his mother was a chemist. cite web|url=http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_26/b3990034.htm|title="Red" Whittaker: A Man And His Robots|author=Michael Arndt|date=2006-06-26|publisher=BusinessWeek] . He matriculated at Princeton University, but interrupted his studies to join the United States Marines. He returned to Princeton to earn his bachelor's degree in civil engineering in 1973 and then attended Carnegie Mellon University, where he earned his master's degree in 1975 and his Ph.D. in 1979, both in civil engineering.

Robotics

In March of the year he received his Ph.D., the nuclear reactor at nearby Three Mile Island nearly experienced a meltdown [cite web|url=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/3mile-isle.html/|title=Fact Sheet on the Three Mile Island Accident|publisher=Nuclear Regulatory Commission|date=2007-02-20] . Within a budget of $1.5 million, Whittaker and his colleagues at Carnegie Mellon built robots to inspect and perform repairs in the reactor's damaged basement cite web|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE7D91E3AF932A15757C0A967958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print|title=The Creature That Lives in Pittsburgh|author=John Markoff|date=1991-04-21|publisher=New York Times] , and their experiences with that project resulted in the creation of the Field Robotics Center at Carnegie Mellon University. Whittaker's later teams would also develop robots to help with the aftermath of the nuclear reactor accident at Chernobyl in 1986 [cite web|publisher=The Chronicle of Higher Education|author=Vincent Kiernan|date=1998-07-17|title=Getting an Inside Look at the Chernobyl Reactor|url= http://chronicle.com/che-data/articles.dir/art-44.dir/issue-45.dir/45a02001.htm] . In 1987, Whittaker co-founded RedZone Robotics to develop and sell (or lease) robots that could operate in hazardous environments and situations too dangerous for humans.

Whittaker has led teams that have created robots designed to search for fallen meteorites in the ice fields of Antarctica [cite web
publisher=New York Times
title=Hardier Breed of Antarctic and Lunar Explorers: Robots
author=Warren E. Leary
date=1997-05-13
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503E5DE1139F930A25756C0A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2] [cite web
publisher=New York Times
author=Warren E. Leary
date=2000-01-18
title=Hunt for Meteorites In Antarctica Enlists a Novel Recruit
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C03E0DE1F3AF93BA25752C0A9669C8B63] , climb into the craters of active volcanoes in Alaska [cite web
publisher=New York Times
date= 1994-08-02
title= Robot Is Nearing Goal Inside Active Volcano
author= Warren E. Leary
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E04EEDB1531F931A3575BC0A962958260] [cite web
publisher=New York Times
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B06E5DC1231F930A3575BC0A962958260&n=Top/News/Science/Topics/Volcanoes
title=Robot Completes Volcano Exploration
date= 1994-08-03
author=Warren E. Leary] and Antarctica [cite web
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE6DD1F3EF93BA35751C1A964958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2
title=Robot Named Dante To Explore Inferno Of Antarctic Volcano
date=1992-12-08
author=Warren E. Leary
publisher=New York Times] , and explore the terrain of Mars. [cite web
title=Patents; 'Daddy-Longlegs' Robot for Exploration of Mars
publisher=New York Times
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE5DE103EF930A25757C0A967958260
author= Edmund L. Andrews
date=1991-04-13] The accident at the Quecreek Coal Mine in nearby Somerset County, Pennsylvania compelled Whittaker and his colleague Scott Thayer to develop robots that could map collapsed or abandoned mines [cite web|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/healthscience/20021029groundhogsci2p2.asp|publisher=Pittsburgh Post Gazette|date=2002-10-29|title=CMU tries out new mine-mapping robot|author=Byron Spice] for accident prevention or rescue purposes; they were joined in this endeavor by CMU colleague Sebastian Thrun. Whittaker's robots have also explored the Atacama Desert.

DARPA Grand Challenge

Whittaker has led teams at Carnegie Mellon to build self-driving cars that have participated in the DARPA Grand Challenge since the inception of the contest. In the first competition held in 2004 , his Red Team's vehicle "Sandstorm" traveled 7.4 miles, the farthest of any participant, but no prize was awarded to any team. In the second competition in 2005, Whittaker led two teams, whose vehicles "Sandstorm" and "H1ghlander" captured 2nd place and 3rd place, respectively, behind the vehicle of his colleague, former Carnegie Mellon professor Sebastian Thrun. (Thrun's software development leader, Michael Montemerlo, was also a former student of Whittaker.)

In the third competition held in 2007, Whittaker's team "Tartan Racing" captured first place with their vehicle "Boss", winning the $2 million prizecite web|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/05/technology/05robot.htm|title=Crashes and Traffic Jams in Military Test of Robotic Vehicles|author=John Markoff|publisher=New York Times|date=2007-11-05] cite web|url=http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_7370026|title=Carnegie Mellon wins robot race|date=2007-11-04|author=Associated Press|publisher=San Jose Mercury News] .

Professional activities

*Fellow, American Association for Artificial Intelligence
*Member, National Research Council, Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems, Committee on Advanced Space Technologies
*Member, American Nuclear Society; Robotics and Remote Systems Division
*Member, National Academy of Sciences Peer Review Committee on DOE Environmental Management Technologies, 1994 - 1995.
*Member, National Academy of Sciences Committee to Provide Interim Oversight of the DOE Nuclear Weapons Complex, 1988-1989.

Awards and honors

*"Design News" Special Achievement Award, 1998
*Vector/Pittsburgh, Man of the Year in Technology for 1994
*Laurels Award, "Aviation Week and Space Technology" for outstanding achievement, 1994
*American Association of Artificial Intelligence, AAAI Fellow, 1993
*Carnegie Mellon University Alumni Merit Award for Outstanding Achievement, 1992
*"Computerworld", Smithsonian Award 1992
*"Science Digest"'s Top 100 US Innovators for robotics work, 1987
*Teare Award for Teaching Excellence, Carnegie Mellon University
*National Science Foundation Fellowship, Carnegie Mellon University
*CIT Fellowship, Carnegie Mellon University

ee also

*Sandstorm, one of Red Team's autonomous vehicles

References

External links

* [http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/users/red/ Personal site]
* [http://www.ri.cmu.edu/people/whittaker_william_red.html Academic site]
* [http://www.redzone.com/about About RedZone Robotics, the company that Red created]
* [http://www.redteamracing.org/ Red Team Racing]
* [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/darpa/ Nova |The Great Robot Race] (Red Whittaker is prominently featured in this television documentary.)