Marc Neumann

Snake‐like, tracked, mobile robot with active flippers for urban search‐and‐rescue tasks

Purpose – After a building collapse, people buried alive have to be localized and rescued. This requires the damage sites inspection and surveillance. These tasks are dangerous and challenging due to the areas 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/approach – The 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 systems slender, segmented and modular structure is actively articulated by the use of overall 30 degrees‐of‐freedom, which allow the robots flexible adaptation to a given terrain. System‐terrain‐interaction is detected...

Study of efficiency of USAR operations with assistive technologies

Abstract This paper presents a study on efficiency 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 radar system for the detection of humanoid movements, a semi-active video probe of more than 10m 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 advantage for USAR missions, which are discussed in this paper.

Wheeled, Kinematically Redundant Locomotion System for Mobility-Oriented Research and Experimentation

Mobile robots for inspection and surveillance of hard-to-reach and hazardous areas e.g. resulting from a building collapse in the course of a natural or man-made catastrophe have to possess enhanced rough terrain mobility capabilities. First, they must be able to navigate through a given environment and to avoid insurmountable obstacles. Second, they must have the ability to traverse different forms of ground without getting immobilized by a loss of traction. Third, they must be able to negotiate a wide spectrum of obstacles including e.g. wide gaps and high steps. These abilities can be described as a mobile robots performance indices “maneuverability”, “trafficability” and “terrainability”. As a consequence, mobile robot concepts for disaster control and search-and-rescue tasks always have to be developed and evaluated with regard to these performance indices. In principle, considerable potentials with regard to mobility in unstructured and rough environments offer kinematically redundant locomotion systems equipped with powered wheels or tracks which are inspired by their biological archetype snake. These potentials are based on the systems’ snake-like; modular design as well as their given kinematic redundancy. Due to their slender, modular and flexible design the systems are basically able to travel and maneuver through noticeable narrow passes and tunnels. Further on, their kinematic redundancy can be used for a purposeful posture and terrain adaptation to safeguard traction and the system’s trafficability, respectively. Finally, the systems’ modular and articulated design, both, can be used to achieve an outstanding terrainability and to be able to negotiate remarkable obstacles. The described and expected potentials of kinematically redundant locomotion systems have to be investigated in detail as well as evaluated in practice. To be able to do so, a demonstrator has been developed and implemented for intense mobility-oriented research and experimentation. The mobile robot and first experimental results are described in the paper at hand. The system stands out especially due to an innovative sensory for slip and contact force detection.Copyright

Provision of Basis for a New Snake-Like Reconnaissance Robot for Disaster Situations

It frequently comes to building collapses all over the world. Often people are buried alive. They must be rescued and saved by rescue teams. It depends on the time that passes during a rescue whether a person can still be rescued alive. Especially the information which is available about the exact position of a person buried alive is decisive for a fast accomplishment of rescue actions. Accordingly the exact localization of victims buried alive is of primary importance. It is the only way, a fast rescue and salvation can be started. However, biological and technical locating equipment available today shows numerous weak points. This refers particularly to the precision of position determination of the victims. But the essential disadvantage of the utilizable technologies is that a collapsed building cannot be entered actively. There is no equipment available that enables a deep penetration into ruins for inspection and exploration tasks, without the necessity of using heavy machines. In a research project currently funded in Germany these difficulties shall be encountered by a part autonomous, energy self-sufficient and remotely controlled reconnaissance robot. It will become a motion system, which orientates its design and behavior at the biological archetype snake. The paper at hand introduces the state-of-the-art of technology and research in the fields of locating, reconnaissance robots as well as snake robots. Originating from a multifunctional locomotion system that has been already implemented successfully, elements for a robot system to be newly developed are introduced and discussed.Copyright

A Model Based Approach to Support Risk Management in Innovation Projects

New product development is notably affected by uncertainties that are a consequence of insufficient experience and missing knowledge. If uncertainties are not managed adequately, they will finally lead to risks. We therefore advocate an integrated agile development process, allowing for explicit modelling of uncertainties and reaction strategies as well as the evaluation of the resulting risk caused by the changes to the product in development or the development process. As changes can again lead to undesired change propagation, finally resulting in new uncertainties and in consequence new risks, uncertainty response strategies need to be developed, evaluated and conducted collaboratively. In this publication the Integrated System and Risk Managing Model is presented, enabling users to describe and analyze product and process based uncertainties as well as potential response options within one consistent system. This paper elaborates the underlying structure of the model and concentrates on the modelling process, also explaining the application using examples from a case study.

Adapting Product and Development Process for Risk Reduction in New Product Development

The development of innovative products is characterized by uncertainties that are the result of insufficient experience and incomplete knowledge, finally leading to risks. A multitude of different methods for risk estimation is available in literature, but only scattered approaches are known that support the reduction of risks in a methodical manner. In this publication four different strategies for risk reduction are investigated that either are based on an adaption of the product or of the development process. The results of the investigation are transferred into a concept for a risk response method that is based on a risk response model and represented by using Multiple Domain Matrices. The application of the method is exemplarily demonstrated within a development project.