Eyri Watari

Development of a Throw & Collect Type Rescue Inspector

In order to search survivors in half-collapsed buildings at disastrous sites, the authors have developed the throw & collect rescue inspector. It is composed of a throwing and a drawing mechanisms and a child machine equipped with camera. The parent robot is inserted to the site and starts the inspection of the area. If an obstacle is in the way, it throws out a child machine with its magnetic brake pneumatic cylinder, and the inspection can be performed beyond the obstacle while the child machine is drawn back. This report shows the details of the structure of the robot.

Casting device for search and rescue aiming higher and faster access in disaster site

This paper discusses a casting device for search and rescue operation to aid higher and faster access for mobile robots. To realize higher performance, the design concept of the device is examined from the following three aspects. First, after the arrangements of the stored tether are categorized, the method of selecting the optimal one is considered to maximize the kinetic energy on the tether. Second, to minimize the resistance caused by the tether, a tapered case for the storage is proposed, expected to mitigate the friction between the tether and the case and to prevent the twist on the tether. Third, the way of anchoring the end of the cast tube is proposed. Finally, experimental results show the validity of the device designed on the proposed concepts, after the device is combined with an unmanned vehicle and a ropeway type robot.

Development of a Throw & Collect Type Rescue Inspector - 6th Report: Control of the Throwing Distance by a Magnetic Brake Cylinder

For an effective search for survivors over debris in collapsed buildings, the authors have been developing the throw and collect type rescue inspector. The performance of this rescue robot is based on the parent robot throwing the child machine, equipped with cameras and sensors over high debris for inspection of the area and for searching for survivors, and then to draw it back, which should be better than trying to roll over, or jump over obstacles, as usual robots do. The throwing mechanism consists of a magnetic brake cylinder, which was developed to overcome the problems of the internal pressure fall of the pneumatic cylinder when moving light loads. However, the first magnetic brake cylinder designed does not have the necessary structure and mechanism to provide control over the child machines throwing distance. This paper describes the design and the controlling method of a new magnetic brake cylinder, which allows control of the throwing distance of the child machine

Rescue inspectors to enhance accessibility and traverse ability using Magnetic Brake Cylinder

Two types of rescue inspectors are presented in order to enhance accessibility of disastrous sites. One is a rolling and jumping mobile inspector, which uses a pneumatic cylinder to jump over obstacles, and the other one is the throw and collect type rescue inspector, which deploys a child machine over high obstacles using a pneumatic cylinder In order to enhance their traversing ability, in this paper, a novel pneumatic cylinder is proposed, named magnetic brake cylinder (MB cylinder hereafter), which is composed of a tank, a pneumatic cylinder, and a permanent magnet. With this structure, the piston is held by the attractive force of the magnet until the pressure inside the tank is very high, offering a higher driving power than an ordinary cylinder. Its control method and the optimization process of its size are also introduced. The MB cylinder is then mounted into the presented inspectors, which show a higher jumping and throwing height than when using an ordinary cylinder, proving to be an efficient option of enhancement.

Proposal of Throwing and Jumping Tool Aiming Fast Access and Efficient Search

In order to enhance the accessibility to the disaster site from safe places and aiming a fast inspection of the area, the authors have proposed a locomotion method consisted of a robot throwing one of its parts into the site, and this thrown part (child machine) performs the inspection by rolling and jumping locomotion. To realize this method, the selected main actuator is the pneumatic cylinder, which is capable of using large energy density while being compact in size. This paper proposes a novel pneumatic cylinder in order to enhance its power to throw the child machine and a control method to increase accuracy of the throw. In addition, the developed prototypes equipped with the novel actuator show high efficiency of accessibility and inspection time.