PurposeAfter a building collapse, people buried alive have to be localized and rescued. This requires the damage site's inspection and surveillance. These tasks are dangerous and challenging due to the area's hard‐to‐reach and hazardous environment. The damage site cannot be actively entered but must be inspected from a safe distance. In this context, mobile robots gain in importance as they can be operated semi‐autonomously or remote‐controlled without exposing the first responders to the risk. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a novel robot.Design/methodology/approachThe novel robot introduced in this paper has a snake‐like build‐up, uses tracks and active flippers for locomotion and negotiates completely structured as well as extremely unstructured and rough terrain. The system's slender, segmented and modular structure is actively articulated by the use of overall 30 degrees‐of‐freedom, which allow the robot's flexible adaptation to a given terrain. System‐terrain‐interaction is detected by the use of an innovative, RFID‐based sensory integrated in the system's tracks.FindingsThe paper presents the mobile robot's basic features, as well as first experimental results for semi‐autonomy and tele‐operation.Originality/valueThe introduced robot stands out due to its high locomotion and mobility capabilities.
This paper presents presents a study on e ciency of Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) missions that has been carried out within the framework of the German research project I-LOV. After three years of development, first field tests have been carried out in 2011 by professionals such as the Rapid Deployment Unit for Salvage Operations Abroad (SEEBA). We present results from evaluating search teams in simulated USAR scenarios equipped with newly developed technical search means and digital data input terminals developed in the I-LOV project. In particular, USAR missions assisted by the "bioradar", a ground-penetrating radar system for the detection of humanoid movements, a semi-active video probe of more than 10 m length for rubble pile exploration, a snake-like rescue robot, and the decision support system FRIEDAA were evaluated and compared with conventional USAR missions. Results of this evaluation indicate that the developed technologies represent an advantages for USAR missions, which are discussed in this paper.
Mobile robots offer significant potentials for inspection and surveillance of damage sites after building collapses in the course of a natural or manmade catastrophe. They can be operated semi-autonomously or remote controlled which decreases the danger of the first responders at place. Nevertheless the mentioned scenarios are mostly hard-to-reach and hazardous environments. Therefore mobile robots for the use in such areas have to possess outstanding locomotion and mobility capabilities. Those can be theoretically provided by snake-like robots which have a slender, segmented and modular structure. Furthermore the trafficability and terrainability can be improved by the use of tracks as propulsive elements. Though the use of tracks is best suited for unstructured terrain their design is challenging. This is especially due to the aspect of sensor integration for the detection of physical system-environment-interaction which is necessary for a better terrain adaptation. The paper at hand introduces and describes a new wireless contact sensor for contact point detection for the mobile robot MOEBHIU²S. It focuses on the design, the post integration into the tracks, the signal routing by using RFID technology and first results measured on a test rig.
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