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This paper provides a preliminary analysis of reconstructions of seven disaster props from datasets collected over five flights with a small unmanned aerial vehicle and finds 181 anomalies present in four categories. Commercial and free software are available to create reconstructions from digital images, but their accuracy and limitations have not been formally explored for disaster assessment. This...
In this paper, we describe a grand vision of our project, which is to develop an autonomous water monitoring system by operating an unmanned aerial and surface vehicle collaboration team with the focus on large and long rivers. Key backgrounds and challenges in realizing this vision are briefly outlined, and we show a simple path planning for an unmanned surface vehicle for the effective water sampling...
This report presents a robotic inspection and cleanup task in a nuclear waste storage facility. In February 2014, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), a storage facility for high-level nuclear waste located deep underground, experienced a chemically-induced energetic incident within one of its storage containers that resulted in the release of a small amount of radioactive material. This closed...
For aging social infrastructure, robot technology is effective for the inspection and maintenance. Such capabilities are similar to those required in the disaster response robots. The application of response robot technology to frequently-used maintenance robots for infrastructure accelerate the social implementation of the response robots. In the paper, the concept and outlines of Japan Virtual Robotics...
Robotic first responders have potential to significantly improve rescue efficiency and safety in search and rescue missions. To operate intelligently, a robot requires the capability to recognize critical objects in a disaster environment, in order to effectively locate victims and/or prevent secondary disasters. In this report, we introduce a novel dataset of Critical Objects for Response to Emergency...
We present the latest advances of our Canine Augmentation Technology (CAT) system. Our new approach to Urban Search and Rescue canine search sensing involves the use of stabilized and stitched multi-camera views and produces panoramic video that can be further processed for better human understanding. We discuss our initial results, some of the outstanding challenges and the existing and possible...
In this paper, we introduce the Lehigh Ocean Research Craft Autonomous (LORCA) — a high performance USV with applications to surveillance and monitoring tasks. Compact (1.2 m), lightweight (5 kg) and robust (one-piece carbon fiber design), LORCA is capable of speeds of 80 kph (50 mph). It was also designed to be capable of operations in ocean waves, with self-righting ability in all sea states. We...
A reliable concept for steering was realized by integrating a spine-like structure with one DoF into a quadruped robot — Cheetah-cub-S. We increased maneuverability dramatically compared to a robot with rigid spine, while keeping controlling effort low. The robot weights 1160 g at 0.1 m (height), 0.105 m (width) and 0.205 m (length). Based on qualitative tests, it is able to run 0.36 m/s and turn...
Despite increased safety and improved technology in the mining industry, fatal disasters still occur. Robots have the potential to be an invaluable resource to search and rescue teams, but have demonstrated limited success. Of all robot deployments in underground mine disasters, 75% have failed. This necessitates advancement in the field in order to increase the success rate. Identified through literature,...
This paper presents the development of a unique supervisory control architecture for effective task allocation of a heterogeneous multi-robot team in urban search and rescue (USAR) applications. In the proposed approach, the USAR tasks of exploring large unknown cluttered environments and searching for victims are allocated to different robots in the heterogeneous team based on their capabilities...
Hybridization of robots has led to great leaps in capability, often with minimal additional complexity, and refers to a synergistic combination of different actuation modes within a single platform. Doing so extends the capabilities and task space of a robot by pooling together the strengths of the individual modes and results in a single platform that is greater than the sum of its parts. In this...
To reliably satisfy objectives, path planning and trajectory management algorithms for fixed-wing aerial systems (UAS) executing persistent surveillance missions must integrate onboard sensor capabilities and vehicle maneuver constraints. In many cases, the characteristic dimensions of sensor fields of view are comparable to the turning radius of the UAS platform. Consequently, when persistent, full...
We have developed a tracked mobile robot which is equipped with four legs at its body. This robot is able to not only move on rough terrain robustly, but also perform variety of working motions by using the legs as manipulation arms. This paper describes several possible leg-track hybrid working and movement motions. Specifically, we consider the motion of running over a gap and retrieving a target...
Gaussian Processes have been previously used to model wireless signals strength for its use as sensory input for robot localization. The standard Gaussian Process formulation assumes that the outputs are corrupted by identically independently distributed Gaussian noise. Even though, in general, wireless signals strength do not have homogeneous noise variance. If enough data samples are collected,...
For certain autonomous applications, flapping wing unmanned air vehicles (FWUAVs) provide a desirable balance between fixed wing and rotary air vehicles because they are fast, quiet, and maneuverable. Combined with autonomous stabilization and navigation, these platforms have the potential to allow close up chemical and visual inspections of areas using a dive maneuver. FWUAVs are good platforms for...
A sufficient level of situational awareness is crucial in the operation of remote, teleoperated robots to fulfil a mission. While much work has been done in user interfaces, camera systems and so-on to improve situational awareness, it is an unfortunate fact that few of these developments have filtered down into operational use. In this paper, we describe our preliminary work on improving situational...
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