Death in the clouds: The problem of bodies on Everest (2015)

Re:Death in the clouds: The problem of bodies on Everest (2015) by aorloff on Saturday May 27, 2017 @12:42AM (#14428954)

This seems like such an obvious use for robots, and given the explosion of robots in delivery and other fields now, I'm curious if anyone has tried it ? Why can't battery powered robots, with sleds, controlled from base camp, clean up the mountain - picking up the dead and perhaps some trash too ?

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Re:Death in the clouds: The problem of bodies on Everest (2015) by nradov on Saturday May 27, 2017 @01:15AM (#14429034)

Have you ever actually been on a mountain? The robotics industry is decades away from having anything that can operate reliability and do heavy work in that environment. If anyone tried it now we would end up with a mountain littered with broken robots.

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Re:Death in the clouds: The problem of bodies on Everest (2015) by duskwuff on Saturday May 27, 2017 @01:32AM (#14429056)

1) You are underestimating how difficult the terrain is. The only types of robot that'd have a chance would be some of the legged ones from Boston Dynamics, and even they probably wouldn't be up to the challenge.

2) Lithium-ion batteries perform poorly at low temperatures. And there's very little electricity available on the mountain at all, let alone near the summit where a lot of the bodies are.

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Re:Death in the clouds: The problem of bodies on Everest (2015) by rdl on Saturday May 27, 2017 @04:20AM (#14429367)

We can make robots that work in space. We can surely make things which work in this environment. Either heat them, or use thermal batteries for power when needed. Also might be an interesting application for compressed air.

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Re:Death in the clouds: The problem of bodies on Everest (2015) by JadeNB on Saturday May 27, 2017 @06:59PM (#14432315)

> We can make robots that work in space. We can surely make things which work in this environment.

Space is a way less challenging environment than mountains for robots, which are well equipped to handle, say, lack of air and gravity, but poorly equipped to handle rough and rocky terrain and lots of gravity.

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Re:Death in the clouds: The problem of bodies on Everest (2015) by rdl on Saturday May 27, 2017 @04:19AM (#14429362)

It would be a great "x-prize" type thing, indeed. Beyond current capabilities, but not that far beyond them, and thus interesting. Being able to take oxygen bottles, cameras, etc. around would make climbing a lot easier, too.

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