Takao Inoh

Development of Helios VII: an arm-equipped tracked vehicle for search and rescue operations

In this research an arm-equipped vehicle for search and rescue operations is presented. The important features for tracked vehicles are introduced through an overview of the solutions so far developed. The concept and the motion capabilities of the new vehicle Helios VII are explained. Afterwards the first assembled prototype is validated by means of mechanical computer simulations and basic experiments on the real vehicle.

Helios VII : a new vehicle for disaster response-mechanical design and basic experiments

Crawler-type vehicles have a considerable importance for rescue operations and tasks performed on disaster-stricken areas. A great deal of research has already been performed on tracked vehicles. However, due to the variety of scenerios in which robots are employed, it is important to design vehicles with high terrain adaptability and that are capable to fulfill different tasks. After an overview of the merits of crawler-type vehicles, the important features of tracked vehicles are introduced and explained. The concept and the mechanical design of a new crawler-type vehicle for rescue operations, named Helios VII, are presented. It consists of two crawlers independently actuated and it is equipped with a manipulator. The novel gripper utilized as an end-effector for the arm is also introduced and tested. Basic experiments on the first assembled prototype are performed to verify the motion capabilities of the vehicle.

HELIOS system: A team of tracked robots for special urban search and rescue operations

Fire brigades and special agencies are often demanded to operate for search and aid of human lives in extremely dangerous scenarios. It is very important to first verify the safety of the environment and to obtain remotely a clear image of the scenario inside buildings or underground spaces. Several studies have been addressing the possibility of using robotic tools to carry out safe operations.

HELIOS carrier: Tail-like mechanism and control algorithm for stable motion in unknown environments

Mobile platforms when negotiating steps and stairs should be able to control theirs posture in order to avoid sudden tilting or falls. In particular, when considering applications for search and rescue operations where users have a very limited time of operation, the motion on stairs should be automated as much as possible. In this way operators can concentrate on their tasks (i.e. search of survivors and/or exploration of dangerous environments) rather than having to focus on the stability of the vehicle. A simple but very effective mechanism called “tail” is introduced. The mechanical design and its control method is presented together with several tests and experiments carried out with a simple tracked vehicle in real environments.

On-Rubble Robot Systems for the DDT Project

Intelligent rescue systems with advanced information and robot technology have been expected to mitigate disaster damage, particularly in Japan after the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. It is important that the robots developed for search and rescue tasks can actually work at a real disaster site. Several robots were used for the search and detection operation in the collapsed World Trade Center building in September 2001. In 2002, the DDT Project (Special Project for Earthquake Disaster Mitigation in Urban Areas, III-4 Development of Advanced Robots and Information Systems for Disaster Response) was launched by MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan). It was a 5-year project for 2002–2007. It aimed at developing necessary technologies for mitigating the damage caused by large-scale earthquakes of the scale of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, occurring in densely populated areas in big city regions such as the Tokyo metropolitan area and Keihanshin area. In this paper, we introduce the activities of the mission unit for the information collection by on-rubble mobile platforms.

Design Guidelines for Human Interface for Rescue Robots

In this chapter, we summarize the findings and knowhow in the individual developments of rescue robots and attempt to establish design guidelines for the human interface for rescue robots. The guidelines for image display were established on the basis of some case studies in the DDT project and RoboCupRescue. Since the established guidelines are general and independent of the purpose of a robot, we decided to build a standardized image display prototype. After introducing some implementation examples based on our guidelines, the standardized image display prototype is presented. The established guidelines would be useful for the future development of rescue robots. Further, the prototype image display is a good example of a standardized interface testbed.