Jingchao Zhao

A Search-and-Rescue Robot System for Remotely Sensing the Underground Coal Mine Environment

This paper introduces a search-and-rescue robot system used for remote sensing of the underground coal mine environment, which is composed of an operating control unit and two mobile robots with explosion-proof and waterproof function. This robot system is designed to observe and collect information of the coal mine environment through remote control. Thus, this system can be regarded as a multifunction sensor, which realizes remote sensing. When the robot system detects danger, it will send out signals to warn rescuers to keep away. The robot consists of two gas sensors, two cameras, a two-way audio, a 1 km-long fiber-optic cable for communication and a mechanical explosion-proof manipulator. Especially, the manipulator is a novel explosion-proof manipulator for cleaning obstacles, which has 3-degree-of-freedom, but is driven by two motors. Furthermore, the two robots can communicate in series for 2 km with the operating control unit. The development of the robot system may provide a reference for developing future search-and-rescue systems.

Navigation research on outdoor miniature reconnaissance robot

Miniature robot has becoming a preferable choice for outdoor reconnaissance task due to its flexibility. However, miniature robot tends to have poor navigation ability because of the limited perception ability coming with the constrained space. This paper focus on the navigation problem of outdoor miniature reconnaissance robot with limited sensing ability in unknown obstacles environment. In this paper, Global Position System (GPS), magnetometer and infrared distance sensor based artificial potential filed method is adopted to navigation robot go through obstacles. Meanwhile, local minimum trapped detection has been analyzed. Simulations and experiment proves the effectiveness of proposed method.

A New Disaster Information Sensing Mode: Using Multi-Robot System with Air Dispersal Mode

This paper presents a novel sensing mode for using mobile robots to collect disaster ground information when the ground traffic from the rescue center to disaster site is disrupted. Traditional sensing modes which use aerial robots or ground robots independently either have limited ability to access disaster site or are only able to provide a bird’s eye view of the disaster site. To illustrate the proposed sensing mode, the authors have developed a Multi-robot System with Air Dispersal Mode (MSADM) by combining the unimpeded path of aerial robots with the detailed view of ground robots. In the MSADM, an airplane carries some minimal reconnaissance ground robots to overcome the paralyzed traffic problem and deploys them on the ground to collect detailed scene information using parachutes and separation device modules. In addition, the airplane cruises in the sky and relays the control and reported information between the ground robots and the human operator. This means that the proposed sensing mode is able to provide more reliable communication performance when there are obstacles between the human operators and the ground robots. Additionally, the proposed sensing mode can easily make use of different kinds of ground robots, as long as they have a compatible interface with the separation device. Finally, an experimental demonstration of the MSADM is presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed sensing mode.

Actively-compliant locomotion control with the hydraulic quadruped robot on rough terrain

This paper is authored to describe a control framework that is designated for hydraulically actuated quadruped robot to trot on rough terrain. In order to succeed in trotting on rough terrain, two controllers are synthesized: i) Dual Length Linear Inverted Pendulum Method (DLLIPM), ii) Active Compliance Control. The first controller computes the hydraulic quadruped robots trajectory, which not only effectively reduces the energy dissipation, but also promotes the workspace utilization. The second controller, in the meantime, utilizes the force sensors which are located at the bottom of the feet to calculate the joint displacements that are associated with ground reaction force errors, using admittance blocks. In addition to position feedback, these joint displacements are inserted to the position control loop and then updates the orientation input. In doing so, the hydraulic quadruped robot can perform the given locomotion task in an actively-compliant manner. Using the proposed frame work, the overall control performance is tested by hydraulic quadruped robot on rough terrain via simulation and the results turn out to be positive.