scholarly journals Control of a Hierarchical Team of Robots for Urban Search and Rescue

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Thomas Mirko Roehr
Keyword(s):  
Control System ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Search And Rescue ◽  
Simulation Environment ◽  
Urban Search And Rescue ◽  
Research Teams ◽  
Mapping Algorithm ◽  
Robot Architecture ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Global And Local

<p>Research teams worldwide are researching the application of robots for Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) operations and some are using teams of robots. The Mechatronics Research Group of Victoria University of Wellington is developing a low cost architecture of a team of USAR robots that is hierarchically structured and can operate autonomously. The objective of this thesis is to design the autonomous control system for the proposed architecture. The overall system design and combination of hardware and software solutions needs to be evaluated in a realistic environment. The project could not perform tests in a real environment and developed a realistic simulation environment instead to allow the evaluation of hardware and software constraints. This project successfully developed an incremental mapping algorithm which served as foundation for distributed path planning, and modified an existing navigation approach to cope with the main challenges of 3D operation environments. In order to deal with multiple robots, this thesis applied a centralised control mechanism and a combination of a global and local exploration strategy. This thesis contributes software solutions to operate the low cost robot architecture and identified weaknesses in the design of the middle tier of robots. The individual algorithms, and their combination in a major control system proved to be effective, but not without limitations. Consequently, this thesis suggests solutions to overcome some of these limitations.</p>

scholarly journals Control of a Hierarchical Team of Robots for Urban Search and Rescue

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Thomas Mirko Roehr
Keyword(s):  
Control System ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Search And Rescue ◽  
Simulation Environment ◽  
Urban Search And Rescue ◽  
Research Teams ◽  
Mapping Algorithm ◽  
Robot Architecture ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Global And Local

<p>Research teams worldwide are researching the application of robots for Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) operations and some are using teams of robots. The Mechatronics Research Group of Victoria University of Wellington is developing a low cost architecture of a team of USAR robots that is hierarchically structured and can operate autonomously. The objective of this thesis is to design the autonomous control system for the proposed architecture. The overall system design and combination of hardware and software solutions needs to be evaluated in a realistic environment. The project could not perform tests in a real environment and developed a realistic simulation environment instead to allow the evaluation of hardware and software constraints. This project successfully developed an incremental mapping algorithm which served as foundation for distributed path planning, and modified an existing navigation approach to cope with the main challenges of 3D operation environments. In order to deal with multiple robots, this thesis applied a centralised control mechanism and a combination of a global and local exploration strategy. This thesis contributes software solutions to operate the low cost robot architecture and identified weaknesses in the design of the middle tier of robots. The individual algorithms, and their combination in a major control system proved to be effective, but not without limitations. Consequently, this thesis suggests solutions to overcome some of these limitations.</p>

scholarly journals Mind the gap: detection and traversability analysis of terrain gaps using LIDAR for safe robot navigation

Robotica ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (7) ◽  
pp. 1085-1101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnab Sinha ◽  
Panagiotis Papadakis
Keyword(s):  
Principal Component ◽  
Orientation Distribution ◽  
Obstacle Detection ◽  
Search And Rescue ◽  
Range Data ◽  
Morphological Operations ◽  
Urban Search And Rescue ◽  
3 Dimensional ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Car Accident

SUMMARYSafe navigation of robotic vehicles is considered as a key pre-requisite of successful mission operations within highly adverse and unconstrained environments. While there has been extensive research in the perception of positive obstacles, little progress can be accredited to the field of negative obstacles. This paper hypostatizes an elaborative attempt to address the problem of negative obstacle detection and traversability analysis in the form of gaps by processing 3-dimensional range data. The domain of application concerns Urban Search and Rescue scenarios that reflect environments of increased complexity in terms of diverse terrain irregularities. To allow real-time performance and, in turn, timely prevention of unrecoverable robotic states, the proposed approach is based on the application of efficient image morphological operations for noise reduction and border following the detection and grouping of gaps. Furthermore, we reason about gap traversability, a concept that is novel within the field. Traversability assessments are based on features extracted through Principal Component Analysis by exploring the spatial distribution of the interior of the individual gaps or the orientation distribution of the corresponding contour. The proposed approach is evaluated within a realistic scenario of a tunnel car accident site and a challenging outdoor scenario. Using a contemporary Search and Rescue robot, we have performed extensive experiments under various parameter settings that allowed the robot to always detect the real gaps, and either optimally cross over those that were traversable or otherwise avoid them.

Microprocessor-Based Robot Action Control Using Local Closed-Loop Approach

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Hung Chen ◽  
Hsiung Cheng Lin ◽  
Ying Chu Liu ◽  
Wei Chung Hsu
Keyword(s):  
Control System ◽  
Real World ◽  
Closed Loop ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Action Control ◽  
Control Module ◽  
Efficient Performance ◽  
Increasing Demand ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Performance Results

With increasing demand of robot applications in industry or other areas, the development of both reliable and low-cost robot action control system is getting much attention in recent years. This paper has proposed a local closed-loop based robot action control module using independent microprocessors. The robot action commands transmitted from PC via RS232 can be received by the individual authorized microprocessor. There are up to tens of modules to be operated for a variety of robot actions simultaneously and independently. Real world performance results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in term of robust, simple, flexible and efficient performance.

An architecture for multi-robot localization and mapping in the Gazebo/Robot Operating System simulation environment

SIMULATION ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 93 (9) ◽  
pp. 771-780 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erkan Uslu ◽  
Furkan Çakmak ◽  
Nihal Altuntaş ◽  
Salih Marangoz ◽  
Mehmet Fatih Amasyalı ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Operating System ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Simulation Environment ◽  
Urban Search And Rescue ◽  
Mapping Algorithms ◽  
Robot Operating System ◽  
Mapping Algorithm ◽  
Localization And Mapping ◽  
Dimensional Simulation ◽  
Multi Robot

Robots are an important part of urban search and rescue tasks. World wide attention has been given to developing capable physical platforms that would be beneficial for rescue teams. It is evident that use of multi-robots increases the effectiveness of these systems. The Robot Operating System (ROS) is becoming a standard platform for the robotics research community for both physical robots and simulation environments. Gazebo, with connectivity to the ROS, is a three-dimensional simulation environment that is also becoming a standard. Several simultaneous localization and mapping algorithms are implemented in the ROS; however, there is no multi-robot mapping implementation. In this work, two multi-robot mapping algorithm implementations are presented, namely multi-robot gMapping and multi-robot Hector Mapping. The multi-robot implementations are tested in the Gazebo simulation environment. Also, in order to achieve a more realistic simulation, every incremental robot movement is modeled with rotational and translational noise.

Design of a low-cost, highly mobile urban search and rescue robot

2005 ◽  
Vol 19 (8) ◽  
pp. 879-899 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley E. Bishop ◽  
Frederick L. Crabbe ◽  
Bryan M. Hudock
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Search And Rescue ◽  
Urban Search And Rescue ◽  
Rescue Robot

scholarly journals Modelling Wireless Robots for Urban Search and Rescue in Artificial Rubble

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Tik Wa Charles Tsui
Keyword(s):  
Wireless Communication ◽  
Wireless Network ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Search And Rescue ◽  
Communication Link ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Urban Search And Rescue ◽  
Safe Distance ◽  
Tier System ◽  
Rescue Personnel

<p>Using robots to assist rescue personnel in USAR (Urban Search and Rescue) missions is an active area of research. Researchers are developing robots to penetrate into rubble to gather information about the environment and to search for victims. The School of Engineering and Computer Science of Victoria University of Wellington is developing a team of robots, the "robot family" to help at disasters. The robot family is a three-tier system. The first tier the "grandmother" which carries second tier "mother robots" to the rubble. The mother robot each launches a group of the third tier "daughter robots" that will penetrate the rubble surface. The daughter robots will burrow deep into the disaster site. They will be equipped with sensors to search for and locate trapped persons. They are designed to be small, battery operated, low cost and disposable. The team of robots is hierarchically structured and to be remotely monitored by rescue personnel at a safe distance from the rubble via a wireless communication link. This thesis describes the successful implementation of a wireless communication platform for the team of robots. This was verified using a simulated rubble site. A suitable ZigBee wireless module was selected by comparing a list of target brands to form the wireless network. A group of simulated wireless daughter robot models were developed by attaching wireless modules to microcontrollers. An automatic routing wireless network was implemented between the robots. They were deployed into artificial rubble and the communication system was characterised. Proof of concept experiments were carried out and demonstrated that rescue personnel using a computer at a safe distance outside the rubble could successfully establish reliable communication to monitor or control all robots inside the artificial rubble environment.</p>

scholarly journals LittleBot

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
James McVay
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Environmental Monitoring ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Search And Rescue ◽  
Mobile Video ◽  
Urban Search And Rescue ◽  
User Testing ◽  
The Third ◽  
Hazardous Environments

<p>Robots to assist in USAR (urban search and rescue) situations have been employed since 2001. Such robots are designed to provide video and sensor feedback to evaluate hazardous environments before human taskforces are sent in. This minimises the risks human personnel are exposed to, while increasing the effectiveness of USAR operations. However, the typically high cost of such robots and the reliance on trained operators puts them out of reach of most USAR teams. In New Zealand, there are no nationally available robots suitable for USAR purposes. This thesis explores the development of new affordable devices that can be deployed for USAR operations, known as LittleBots. Three LittleBot variants are developed. Differing primarily in their locomotive capability, two mobile variants provide tether-less video reconnaissance and selectable gas level readings. The third, stationary variant, may be reconfigured with up to four selectable sensors, and is targeted at providing ongoing environmental monitoring at a disaster site. With all variants costing less than USD $155 in components, LittleBots are sufficiently low cost to be considered disposable, greatly increasing the likelihood they will be employed en masse. The stationary Sentry variant demonstrates a minimum runtime of over 60 hours, while the mobile variants provision up to 6 hours of mobile video reconnaissance. For independent deployment of LittleBots, a compatible Controller device is developed. Through user testing, the Controller device demonstrates easy and intuitive use, with no training required.</p>

scholarly journals LittleBot

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
James McVay
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Environmental Monitoring ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Search And Rescue ◽  
Mobile Video ◽  
Urban Search And Rescue ◽  
User Testing ◽  
The Third ◽  
Hazardous Environments

<p>Robots to assist in USAR (urban search and rescue) situations have been employed since 2001. Such robots are designed to provide video and sensor feedback to evaluate hazardous environments before human taskforces are sent in. This minimises the risks human personnel are exposed to, while increasing the effectiveness of USAR operations. However, the typically high cost of such robots and the reliance on trained operators puts them out of reach of most USAR teams. In New Zealand, there are no nationally available robots suitable for USAR purposes. This thesis explores the development of new affordable devices that can be deployed for USAR operations, known as LittleBots. Three LittleBot variants are developed. Differing primarily in their locomotive capability, two mobile variants provide tether-less video reconnaissance and selectable gas level readings. The third, stationary variant, may be reconfigured with up to four selectable sensors, and is targeted at providing ongoing environmental monitoring at a disaster site. With all variants costing less than USD $155 in components, LittleBots are sufficiently low cost to be considered disposable, greatly increasing the likelihood they will be employed en masse. The stationary Sentry variant demonstrates a minimum runtime of over 60 hours, while the mobile variants provision up to 6 hours of mobile video reconnaissance. For independent deployment of LittleBots, a compatible Controller device is developed. Through user testing, the Controller device demonstrates easy and intuitive use, with no training required.</p>

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