Red Whittaker

{{Infobox scientist

| name = William L. "Red" Whittaker

| image = Red_Whittaker.jpg

| caption =

| birth_place = Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, U.S.

| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1948}}

| field = Robotics, Driverless Cars, Planetary Rovers, Automated Agriculture, Automated mining

| alma_mater = Princeton University
Carnegie Mellon University

| workplaces = Carnegie Mellon University, Astrobotic Technology

}}

William L. "Red" Whittaker (born 1948) is an American roboticist and research professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University. He led Tartan Racing to its first-place victory in the DARPA Grand Challenge (2007) Urban Challenge {{cite web|url=http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2007/November/nov4_tartanracingwins.shtml|author=Byron Spice|publisher=Carnegie Mellon University|title=Carnegie Mellon Tartan Racing Wins $2 Million DARPA Urban Challenge|date=2007-11-04|access-date=2014-12-24|archive-date=2015-01-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150102200950/http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2007/November/nov4_tartanracingwins.shtml|url-status=dead}} and brought Carnegie Mellon University the two million dollar prize. Previously, Whittaker also competed in the DARPA Grand Challenge, placing second and third place simultaneously in the Grand Challenge Races.

Whittaker 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.

Red founded and led Carnegie Mellon University's team in the Google Lunar X Prize.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/14/AR2007091400151.html|author=Alicia Chang|newspaper=The Washington Post|title=Google to Finance Moon Challenge Contest|date=2007-09-14}} from its inception in 2007 until its ultimate closure in 2018. Today, Whittaker continues this work through NASA contracts in the form of MoonRanger, a planetary rover in development designed to quickly and autonomously explore the surface of the Moon.{{cite web|url=https://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2019/july/cmu-to-build-lunar-robot.html | title=NASA Selects Carnegie Mellon, Astrobotic to Develop Lunar Robot | author=Byron Spice | publisher=Carnegie Mellon University}}

Biography

Whittaker spent his childhood in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, where his father was an explosives salesman and his mother was a chemist.{{cite web|url=http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_26/b3990034.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060621224504/http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_26/b3990034.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 21, 2006|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 Nuclear Generating Station nearly experienced a meltdown.{{cite web|url=https://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=https://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|work=The 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|access-date=2007-11-05|archive-date=2008-10-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081025092850/http://chronicle.com/che-data/articles.dir/art-44.dir/issue-45.dir/45a02001.htm|url-status=dead}} 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

|work=The New York Times

|title=Hardier Breed of Antarctic and Lunar Explorers: Robots

|author=Warren E. Leary

|date=1997-05-13

|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503E5DE1139F930A25756C0A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2}}{{cite web

|work=The New York Times

|author=Warren E. Leary

|date=2000-01-18

|title=Hunt for Meteorites In Antarctica Enlists a Novel Recruit

|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C03E0DE1F3AF93BA25752C0A9669C8B63}} climb into the craters of active volcanoes in Alaska{{cite web

|work=The New York Times

|date= 1994-08-02

|title= Robot Is Nearing Goal Inside Active Volcano

|author= Warren E. Leary

|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E04EEDB1531F931A3575BC0A962958260}}{{cite web

|work=The New York Times

|url=https://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=https://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

|work=The New York Times}} and explore the terrain of Mars.{{cite web

|title=Patents; 'Daddy-Longlegs' Robot for Exploration of Mars

|work=The New York Times

|url=https://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 contest's inception. 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 prize.{{cite web|url=http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2007/November/nov4_tartanracingwins.shtml|title=Carnegie Mellon Tartan Racing Wins $2 Million DARPA Urban Challenge|author=Byron Spice|publisher=Carnegie Mellon University|date=2007-11-04|access-date=2014-12-24|archive-date=2015-01-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150102200950/http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2007/November/nov4_tartanracingwins.shtml|url-status=dead}}

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

IEEE Simon Ramo Medal, 2012
ASCE Columbia Medal, 2012
Inaugural AAAI Feigenbaum Prize, 2011
Elected to National Academy of Engineering, 2009
Named University Professor, the highest faculty rank at Carnegie Mellon University, 2007
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

References

External links

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

Category:Princeton University School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni

Category:Carnegie Mellon University faculty

Category:Carnegie Mellon University College of Engineering alumni

Category:American roboticists

Category:United States Marines

Category:Fellows of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence

Category:Living people

Category:DARPA Grand Challenge

Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering

Category:1948 births