Cool Robot was developed as "a mobile scientific platform for the harsh conditions of the Antarctic plateau" at Dartmouth College's Thayer School of Engineering.
The prototype was tested at Arctic Science Summit Week 2005 and "met and in some cases exceeded our expectations. By the end of the trip, the robot was able to autonomously execute an 8-mile GPS course laid out for it, through soft snow, gathering all necessary power from its solar panels."
In the end it is supposed to travel over 1000km through the Antarctic summer by itself, power-supplied by the sun, when temperatures still are as low as -40C.
Here's a video or two of Cool Robot action.
P.S. I decided to nickname this chilly fellow Ice Cube and can't stop imagining what wonderfully cool Martinis it could produce, if instead of housing scientific equipment it contained cocktail-making facilities!
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