Carnegie Mellon University Field Robotics Center · legged machine
Dante II
An eight-legged, tethered walking robot that rappelled into an active volcano to sample gases. It walked about 1 metre per minute.
- Price
- $1,700,000Cheaper than 0%
- Height
- 305 cmTaller than 86%
- Weight
- 771 kgHeavier than 72%
- Payload
- —Not published
- Speed
- 0.1 km/hFaster than 0%
- Battery
- —Not published
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Why it matters
Explored the crater of Alaska's Mount Spurr for more than five days under supervised autonomy, with operators about 120 km away.
Real-world use
Sampled high-temperature fumarole gases inside Mount Spurr in July 1994, then toppled on the climb out and was recovered by helicopter.
Maker
Carnegie Mellon University Field Robotics CenterUniversity lab · Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USAHow it stacks up
Against other legged & novel that publish the figure. Pick a measure.
Dante II is taller than 86% of the 22 other legged & novel that publish a height. Bars show the 7 closest in date.
Dante II is heavier than 72% of the 25 other legged & novel that publish a weight. Bars show the 7 closest in date.
Dante II is faster than 0% of the 19 other legged & novel that publish a speed. Bars show the 7 closest in date.
Dante II costs less than 0% of the 7 other legged & novel that publish a price. Bars show the 7 closest in date.
Not published by the maker: payload, joints, battery.
Public attention
A historic robot: no longer sold or in use, so it is not ranked against current machines.
- No Wikipedia article of its own yet
- 2 news stories from reputable press listed on this page
Measures how much people read and write about a robot, not how good it is. Measured 2026-10-13; same method for every robot. How it is measured
What’s inside
The parts the company has talked about publicly.
- Movement
- Walks on legs
- How it runs
- Supervised. Remote operators gave it commands and could take over, while it could also walk short stretches by itself, choosing footholds from laser scans.
- Actuators & motors
- Eight-legged framewalker with a combined walking and rappelling tether system.
- Sensors & vision
- Scanning laser rangefinder, video cameras and gas-sampling instruments.
- Compute
- Multi-level control; operators about 120 km away in Anchorage used supervised autonomy and direct teleoperation, with data relayed by satellite.
- AI & software
- Supervised autonomous control plus teleoperation; computer-generated terrain displays for the operators.
- Other details
- Explored the Mount Spurr crater alone for more than five days in July 1994 and sampled high-temperature fumarole gases.
Lineage
Every Carnegie Mellon University Field Robotics Center (for NASA) machine in order.
Watch Dante II
Made, sold and where
Unit counts are usually company figures; analysts often disagree.
- Price
- $1,700,000about $1.7 million reported cost; never sold
- How to get one
- No official buying page found
- Built
- One robot
- Sold or delivered
- not sold
- Where it is sold or used
- Carnegie Mellon University Field Robotics Center, Pittsburgh
- Customers and pilots
- NASA
News
The latest 2, newest first. Summaries are ours; tap through for the original.
- NASA releases Dante's Volcano video
A NASA video record documents Dante II exploring the Mount Spurr crater under remote control from about 80 miles away.
NASA Technical Reports Server - Stuck robot may need human help
Newspaper report that Dante II had become stuck while climbing out of the volcano and might need a human-assisted recovery.
Tampa Bay Times
Sources
Figures come from a published paper. Every link below backs something on this page.
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