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. 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,