Establishing network connectivity under rubble using a hybrid wired and wireless approach

Ferworn, Alexander; Tran, Jimmy; Ufkes, Alex; Herman, Scott; Kong, Christopher

doi:10.1109/ssrr.2012.6523911

“…During a USAR operation, obstructing debris is detrimental to wireless signal strength. Dense concrete has shown to degrade a wireless signal to the point of lost communication [24]. Very expensive robots can be lost within the rubble and unable to be retrieved due to the inherent danger.…”

Section: Ground-based Roboticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disaster scene reconstruction: modeling, simulating, and planning in an urban disaster environment

Herman¹

2022

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Urban disasters are characterized by buildings collapsing. The rubble of collapsed buildings forms a chaotic, unplanned and unmapped environment in which emergency first responders must find the surviving occupants who are now trapped and hidden in the dangerous rubble. The more knowledge that search teams have pertaining to the resulting environment the better they are equipped to plan and rescue survivors. Our research demonstrates that simulations can be used to inspect urban disaster-related terrain remotely and safely within hours of the actual disaster. The Disaster Scene Reconstruction system allows for the creation of accurate 3D models and a simulation providing custom functionality --such as virtual structural inspection and--providing first responders the ability to plan actions in the simulated environment. The goal of this research is to demonstrate that the functionality we developed can be used to provide accurate information to users and potentially assist search and rescue planning efforts.

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“…The work in [115] describes a proof of concept system, where a modified Category-5 (CAT-5) Ethernet cable was used as a tether. The cable was modified by stripping the shielding, reducing four twisted pair wires to two, which reduces the size and weight of the cable greatly.…”

Section: Future Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Augmentation of Urban Search and Rescue Dogs With Sensing, Control, and Actuation--Extending the Metaphor, "Dog as Robot"

Tran¹

2022

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When disaster strikes in urban areas, the devastating results are collapsed structures that may contain voids, and trapped people within. To a large extent, the speed with which these victims can be found and extricated determines the likelihood of their survival. Specially trained and equipped emergency first responders are tasked with trying to save their lives by locating and extricating trapped victims from these dangerous environments. Telepresence systems can help first responders search for casualties from a safe location. Most automated search systems intended for use in urban disasters, come in the form of remotely operated robots. This work takes a different approach to telepresence and robotics. This work is an extension of previous work that exploits the intelligence and characteristics of trained search dogs combined with compatible technology and used as components in new kinds of telepresence systems for urban search and rescue (USAR) operations. The Canine Remote Deployment System (CRDS) is a tool that emergency responders can use to deliver critical supplies to trapped victims in rubble using dogs. The first contribution of this work is the development of the bark detection system for automatically triggering deployment of packages near trapped victims from the CRDS-guaranteeing accurate package deployment even when remote communication with the dog is impossible. A well-known ground robot problem is the difficulty in designing a mobility mechanism to traverse rubble. Another contribution of this thesis is the Canine Assisted Robot Deployment (CARD) framework and the design of a robot capable of being carried by a search dog. This work extends the responder’s telepresence in rescue operations by bringing robots much deeper into the disaster site than current methods. Visual odometry is used in location tracking in GPS-denied environments and can be used in rescue operations. This research explores the limitation of RGB-D cameras for visual odometry for this application. An algorithm called pseudo-Random Interest Points Extractor was developed iv to track images over visually feature-sparse areas with the potential use of visually reconstructing canine search paths to victims. This work concentrates on using visual odometry from data collected from a search dog-mounted RGB-D camera. The task of model stabilization is difficult due to the nature of dog’s constant and unpredictable movements, asthe data contains many motion blurred images. The development of an algorithm called Intelligent Frame Selector is shown to improve visual odometry for systems carried by search dogs by intelligently filtering data and selecting only usable frames. The algorithm can be applied to any general visual odometry pipeline beneficially as the technique reduces cumulative error problems by using less data.

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“…Aside from using a pure wireless solution, some preliminary work has been done on a hybrid approach employing wired and wireless networks as suggested in [115]. The propose of such a solution is a system developed to establish communications through the delivery of appropriate equipment by dogs.…”

Section: Future Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Augmentation of Urban Search and Rescue Dogs With Sensing, Control, and Actuation--Extending the Metaphor, "Dog as Robot"

Tran¹

2022

Preprint

0

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

When disaster strikes in urban areas, the devastating results are collapsed structures that may contain voids, and trapped people within. To a large extent, the speed with which these victims can be found and extricated determines the likelihood of their survival. Specially trained and equipped emergency first responders are tasked with trying to save their lives by locating and extricating trapped victims from these dangerous environments. Telepresence systems can help first responders search for casualties from a safe location. Most automated search systems intended for use in urban disasters, come in the form of remotely operated robots. This work takes a different approach to telepresence and robotics. This work is an extension of previous work that exploits the intelligence and characteristics of trained search dogs combined with compatible technology and used as components in new kinds of telepresence systems for urban search and rescue (USAR) operations. The Canine Remote Deployment System (CRDS) is a tool that emergency responders can use to deliver critical supplies to trapped victims in rubble using dogs. The first contribution of this work is the development of the bark detection system for automatically triggering deployment of packages near trapped victims from the CRDS-guaranteeing accurate package deployment even when remote communication with the dog is impossible. A well-known ground robot problem is the difficulty in designing a mobility mechanism to traverse rubble. Another contribution of this thesis is the Canine Assisted Robot Deployment (CARD) framework and the design of a robot capable of being carried by a search dog. This work extends the responder’s telepresence in rescue operations by bringing robots much deeper into the disaster site than current methods. Visual odometry is used in location tracking in GPS-denied environments and can be used in rescue operations. This research explores the limitation of RGB-D cameras for visual odometry for this application. An algorithm called pseudo-Random Interest Points Extractor was developed iv to track images over visually feature-sparse areas with the potential use of visually reconstructing canine search paths to victims. This work concentrates on using visual odometry from data collected from a search dog-mounted RGB-D camera. The task of model stabilization is difficult due to the nature of dog’s constant and unpredictable movements, asthe data contains many motion blurred images. The development of an algorithm called Intelligent Frame Selector is shown to improve visual odometry for systems carried by search dogs by intelligently filtering data and selecting only usable frames. The algorithm can be applied to any general visual odometry pipeline beneficially as the technique reduces cumulative error problems by using less data.

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Establishing network connectivity under rubble using a hybrid wired and wireless approach

Cited by 3 publications

References 7 publications

Disaster scene reconstruction: modeling, simulating, and planning in an urban disaster environment

Disaster scene reconstruction: modeling, simulating, and planning in an urban disaster environment

The Augmentation of Urban Search and Rescue Dogs With Sensing, Control, and Actuation--Extending the Metaphor, "Dog as Robot"

The Augmentation of Urban Search and Rescue Dogs With Sensing, Control, and Actuation--Extending the Metaphor, "Dog as Robot"

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