William L. "Red" Whittaker | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1948 (age 75–76) |
| Alma mater | Princeton University Carnegie Mellon University |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Robotics, Driverless Cars, Planetary Rovers, Automated Agriculture, Automated mining |
| Institutions | 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 [1] 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.[2] 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.[3]
- ^ Byron Spice (2007-11-04). "Carnegie Mellon Tartan Racing Wins $2 Million DARPA Urban Challenge". Carnegie Mellon University.
- ^ Alicia Chang (2007-09-14). "Google to Finance Moon Challenge Contest". The Washington Post.
- ^ Byron Spice. "NASA Selects Carnegie Mellon, Astrobotic to Develop Lunar Robot". Carnegie Mellon University.