PolarBot is a project conducted under the auspices of Stanford's SSDL by Stanford graduate students and Lockheed Martin employees participating in the Spacecraft Design and Operation Proficiency certificate program.

The goal of the project is to design and build an autonomous rover that shall serve as a mobile platform for various scientific instruments in Antarctica and/or the North Pole.  This kind of mission places an emphasis on robust engineering and "plug and play” capability, which allows for simpler configuration, repair, and control in the field.  The design of the rover has undergone several iterations over the course of two years and the final version is ready to be sent to Antarctica and/or Alaska.  It has been christened Resolution II (R2 for short). 

We expect the rover to be deployed some time during 2006.