PRE2020 4 Group2

Group members

Name	Student ID
Jasmijn de Joode	1358073
Robin Foppen	1394746
Mirre Bosma	1266489
Dirk de Leeuw	1358081
Job van Heumen	id

Problem statement

With our climate changing natural disasters are happening at a larger rate. Thus, we, as humanity, need to prepare for these disasters and try to prevent them. Unfortunately, this will not always work and in the cases this doesn’t work these disasters can cause a lot of damage. One of the results of natural disasters is collapsed buildings. When this happens search and rescue is necessary to save the people trapped inside the building.

Experience has shown that the chances of survival are highest when people have been rescued within 72 hours . After this time frame, the number of survivors found drops drastically. So, it is especially important to have all hands on deck as soon as possible. This is where robots can be of great help.

One of the reasons that we do not make this 72 hour deadline, is that it might be too dangerous for the search and rescue workers to go inside of the rubble. There is danger of collapse, which for the workers could be detrimental. Luckily, robotica can help us work around this problem in various ways. Robots can be used to map the building underneath the rubble and help find victims in places the rescue workers are not able to access.

Advances in robotics still have to be made to make this work even better. So we will define the shortcomings that exist today and try to find where the next innovations can be made.

State of the art

We will discuss the state of the art of Search and Rescue (SAR) robots. There are two types of SAR robots, namely Urban Search and Rescue and Maritime Search and Rescue. We will only focus on Urban Search and Rescue (USAR). USAR may be needed for multiple kinds of emergencies, for example earthquakes, storms and tornadoes, floods and technological accidents. Research and projects are concerned with localizing, extracting and medical stabilization of trapped victims.

Since disaster areas are often dangerous for humans, it is convenient to make use of robots to investigate the area and help victims. Robots are also capable to carry out tasks which are very hard or even impossible for human rescue teams, for example finding victims with the help of thermographic cameras.

Current applications of USAR robots do not include autonomous robots. This is because current technology is not advanced enough to develop fully autonomous robots which are capable to cope with these complex, unpredictable and unstructured environments. Maybe in the far future there will be autonomous robots which can execute USAR missions without any help of humans. However, this is not realistic on short term. This does not mean that robots are not helpful in current USAR projects and missions, but we need to find a balance in the human-robot interaction. There are different kinds of USAR robots, we will discuss ground and aerial robots.

Ground robots

One of the primary challenges for ground robots is the movement in the environment. This is a hard task, because in contrast with for example traffic environments, disaster areas are often unstructured, unpredictable and unknown. It usually also contains many obstacles. To avoid these obstacles, USAR teams can make use of legged ground robots.

Legged robots

Legged robots have the ability to step over challenging terrain, but they are hard to control. These robots need to have complicated structures with multiple legs and actuators for stability and multiple sensors to perceive their environment. So it is quite a challenge to develop a robot that is able to walk properly in disaster areas. This is one of the reasons that legged robots are currently not used as much as wheeled or tracked robots in real-life situations. Another technical problem is that legged robots in a disaster environment need to be very adaptable, not just in their intended design, but they also need to be able to adapt to possible damage, for example to the loss of one of its legs. This is important, because legged robots are usually more fragile than wheeled or tracked robots. Learning algorithms can be used to solve this problem. Some examples of existing legged robots are the robots ANYmal and BigDog (see Figure 1). ANYmal has been developed by ANYbotics and has even been used in real-world industrial applications. BigDog has been developed by Boston Dynamics for military applications.

Tracked and Wheeled robots

Another type of ground robots are tracked and wheeled robots. One of the advantages of these type of robots over legged robots is their stability and that these robots are easier to navigate. However, these robots are not as good at moving through challenging terrain as legged robots, because tracked and wheeled robots are not able to step over obstacles. Since tracked and wheeled robots do not need to have such complicated structures as legged robots, several recent European projects have already utilized tracked or wheeled ground platforms in different rescue environments. We will discuss two European projects: ICARUS and TRADR.

ICARUS

ICARUS focuses on developing integrated tools for search and rescue, utilizing teams of air, ground, and marine vehicles. One of the projects of ICARUS is an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) which consists of two UGV’s: One large UGV and one small UGV. The larger UGV is used as a Mobile sensor platform. The large UGV collects large amounts of data that is necessary to navigate through the environment. Platform for powerful manipulator. The large UGV will be able to remove small obstacles from its path or to free a victim. Transport platform for small UGV. The large UGV will be used as a platform to carry several small UGV’s. The small UGV is used to enter collapsed buildings without damaging these buildings. These small UGV’s can be used to find and help trapped or injured victims. Since this vehicle is small it cannot be equipped with sophisticated sensors nor with a powerful computation unit. For this reason, the level of autonomy of this vehicle will be quite low.

TRADR

After the earthquake in Amatrice, Italy in 2016, a team of the TRADR project made use of two UGV’s and three unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV’s) (see Figure 2) to provide a 3D model of two partially collapsed churches. The mission was a success and the UGV’s and UAV’s were able to collect enough data for a high quality 3D model of the two churches.

Technological development

Natural disaster scenarios are one of the reasons why ground robots are being developed. One of the main challenges is to be able to navigate on complex terrain. Another reason that pushes the technological development of tracked and wheeled robots are open robotic challenges. Some examples are: The ARGOS challenge (ARGOS, 2017). This challenge was won by team argonauts with a tracked robot from the company TAUROB (TAUROB, 2017) (see Figure 3). The DARPA Robotic Challenge. After the nuclear disaster at Fukushima in Japan 2011 it became clear that humans are very vulnerable to natural and man-made disasters. Existing rescue robots were at that time unable to prevent or reduce the damage. This was the reason that the Challenge was created in 2012 by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The primary goal of the challenge was to stimulate the development of human-supervised ground robots which should be able to execute complex tasks in dangerous environments.

(possible) applications of ground robots at disaster zones

some (possible) applications of ground robots are:

Remote sensing (obtaining information from a distance). For example in disaster areas (thermographic) cameras could help a robot to find trapped or injured victims.

Victim interaction (helping victims) or extraction (saving trapped victims). For example supplying food to trapped victims or helping trapped victims to be released.

Remote firefighting. In combination with a remote medic a ground robot can be used to interact with victims through telepresence.

Aerial Robots

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s) have many benefits over ground vehicles. They can be used to get a good view on the disaster area, but they can also be used to get to small spaces where UGV’s cannot reach. However UAV’s also have some disadvantages. Because of their size and power constraints, UAV’s are not able to carry heavy equipment or medical supplies with them. Furthermore, they are usually quite fragile. This means that UAV’s need to be very careful to not collide into walls or other obstacles.

Deliverables

For this project, we want to do a literature study on different Urban Search and Rescue robots. Our objective for this research is to find possible limitations of the current state of the robots, and give suggestions for short and long-term future improvements on both the technology aspect (efficiency) as well as the human-robot interaction aspect. The current state of art of the robots will be investigated, whereupon next the limitations will rise and further developments will be determined.

plm 25 articles state of the art with short description

1

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/1337826?casa_token=pN9v8U00o7oAAAAA:SrqVmUgxtNj50gayQ6GINthgxb1eqMULfJktEnxgYIOEgQ3QRSTgmNr_ajzFdm3PHfasbkWD 9/11 search robots: Robots were used for USAR activities in the aftermath of the WTC attack on 11 September 2001. The robots were on site from 11 September until 2 October 2001. This was the first known actual use of robots for USAR. The robots were used for ◆ searching for victims ◆ searching for paths through the rubble that would be quicker to excavate ◆ structural inspection ◆ detection of hazardous materials In each case, small robots were used because they could go deeper than traditional search equipment (robots routinely went 5–20 m into the interior of the rubble pile versus 2 m for a camera mounted on a pole), could enter a void space too small for a human or search dog, or could enter a place still on fire or posing great risk of structural collapse. → situaties waar er veel debris/rubble is, moeilijk voor search & rescue bepaalde gebieden te bereiken (e.g. 9/11 gebouw instorting, aardbevingen, maar ook tsunami’s of na een brand etc)

2

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/rob.21439?casa_token=apEE7nd6AxwAAAAA:_eQ6UBm4eernhZvDRFEbZbhjEWW1-W8WT_yDIU_B40iDzhhfj4wrr4r3vXkOBKjGIo6tpNZnSiARANo Emergency response to the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plants using mobile rescue robots too dangerous for humans to enter the buildings to inspect the damage because radioactive materials were also being released. In response to this crisis, it was decided that mobile rescue robots would be used to carry out surveillance missions. important features of these robots: ◆ First, the radiation tolerance of the electronic components was checked by means of gamma ray irradiation tests, which were conducted using the facilities of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA). ◆ Next, the usability of wireless communication in the target environment was assessed. ◆ the team mounted additional devices to facilitate the installation of a water gauge in the basement of the reactor buildings to determine flooding levels.

3

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/1291662?casa_token=5HN-bnWlk0QAAAAA:_ZoNHNTy3rTc3ADkS4MCzecsVU7G0pqXwJHAViLitb1BYsGaCarNQskce5gSd0XO2mjnDwWS Human–Robot Interaction in Rescue Robotics: Humans have to communicate directly with the robots, either as operators or as victims, but humans may be consumers of robot information without having any prior knowledge of how a rescue robot works or even awareness of the source of the information. URBAN SEARCH AND RESCUE (USAR) is the emergency response function which deals with the collapse of man-made structures → e.g. WTC 9/11 small robots which can fit inside a backpack have a unique capability to collect useful data in USAR situations. Robots can enter voids too small or deep for a person, and can begin surveying larger voids that people are not permitted to enter until a fire has been put out or the structure has been reinforced, a process that can take over eight hours. They can carry cameras, thermal imagers, hazardous material detectors, and medical payloads into the interior of a rubble pile far beyond where a boroscope can reach.

4

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/999224?casa_token=jjYRhb1yYxYAAAAA:dO_Y5U1W68miTTW94iAmv6O68Z77lo7zQpIb-zUKJJxuQFT5rmMi7nYCXQRhnxq_hT2T2vZj Urban search & rescue robots algemene beschrijving van 9/11 en andere rampen, wedstrijden, future, objectives etc.

5

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/912/3/032023/meta Multiple oriented robots for search and rescue operations (2020) Search and rescue (SAR) operations in a tragedy affected area is challenging. The rescue robots help in the exploration of unknown, confined and cluttered environments. Multiple robots are developed to explore the disaster affected region and will be able to detect any people or living beings present there. The robots have living beings as their targets in tragedy affected areas. The multiple robots deployed in the field, traverse through the tragedy affected area. A novel algorithm has been developed which helps in finding the target. The rescue robots are programmed to find the shortest and less obstacle path to reach the target. Due to the tragedy affected environment, the robots decide the moving direction based on the information gathered by sensors such that the optimal path between start and goal positions can be found. The path to target by the robots are shared among them and the best path is chosen among them. The robots explore and search the region avoiding the obstacles and whenever it comes into contact with a living being it shares the information among other robots. The CO2 level of the particular region is also checked to know whether the person is in a breathing state. The algorithm will be developed in order to increase the pace of the search and to locate the living being. The SAR robots have application over tragedy affected areas like earthquake, avalanche, etc.

6

https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/6230/62301V/Performance-standards-for-urban-search-and-rescue-robots/10.1117/12.663320.full?casa_token=tOJtsJ-FBFYAAAAA%3aMd1XW6fEX9G4kNKz-VLKb_552BZK2s1vq9Cwbe3Lot2LXOmPw8LtTFX8I5ugzMw_aKCE1Jmw&SSO=1 Performance standards for urban search & rescue robots

7

https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3382507.3418871?casa_token=ZSY3tOVSEaQAAAAA:QRUmlQTF87rkUOPNLSUZ65SQJfRyKvfP0PBshaZaX1S2VFdrbQomqTlGo0MwpWkuJ4cyo1DK740v Human-robot interaction: using emotions to complement urban search & rescue robots An experiment is presented to investigate whether there is consensus in mapping emotions to messages/situations in urban search and rescue scenarios, where efficiency and effectiveness of interactions are key to success.

8

Rescue robots research: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqZJci3C8HQ This video shows the importance of robots used during fighting a fire. There are two types of robots that are introduced.

9

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/1337826?casa_token=ying5I3BO6cAAAAA:pnElgXCYVQ4FIZu14XMEl-O1Wza1ChWmo9YzWFb4nHgOvTj2IF9gCKvYd-IkDu-ahrAztkDKeA On September 11, 2001, the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue (CRASAR) responded within six hours to the World Trade Center (WTC) disaster; this is the first known use of robots for urban search and rescue (USAR). The University of South Florida (USF) was one of the four robot teams, and the only academic institution represented. The USF team participated onsite in the search efforts from 12-21 September 2001, collecting and archiving data on the use of all robots, in addition to actively fielding robots. This article provides an overview of the use of robots for USAR, concentrating on what robots were actually used and why. It describes the roles that the robots played in the response and the impact of the physical environment on the platforms. The quantitative and qualitative performance of the robots are summarized in terms of their components (mobility, sensors, control, communications, and power) and within the larger human-robot system. Lessons learned are offered and a synopsis of the current state of rescue robotics and activities at the CRASAR concludes the article.

10

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/1195276?casa_token=kxgOzUKGc24AAAAA:5umqepOYw4UepT4eD9kpg44szsGnVl46pFxefEVEjvUBD9_GPQDkHxHpT7vz2JkrNl2FbAG2yg Firefighting and rescue activity are considered risky mission. They are an ideal target for robot technology to keep away fire fighters from danger. Moreover, it makes possible to rescue much more victims. Some fire departments have already developed and deployed fire fighting and rescue robots. However, the performance of the robots is not enough. The author considers and examines them from two points of view: "size and weight" and "cost and performance". Base on the considerations, the author proposes five important elements to develop useful and reasonable priced robots for fire departments. The robots should make possible to save and rescue much more lives. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8272649?casa_token=82oetxA3YwAAAAAA:-hXcPWcxkbtcK9RkdC1Wv5r1LeuzaepaQj736jLoA3Em8vKvVFclp0lzmEVigvXTcX3wtWlrzA With the advent of technology, humans are replaced with robots in life-threatening situations. We aim to design a robot capable of detecting and suppressing fires. By designing and implementing an autonomous robot capable of detecting and extinguishing flames, disasters can be avoided with minimal risk to human life. In this research, we illustrate an autonomous robot capable of detecting flames indoors and maneuvering towards the flame to extinguish it with the help of carbon dioxide.

11 & 12

Ghost Miniuar shows how to climb fences and can open doors. This type of robot can be used within several rescue operations. https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/robots-to-the-rescue https://www.hackster.io/news/meet-ghost-minitaur-a-quadruped-robot-that-climbs-fences-and-opens-doors-bfec23debdf4

13

all robots (those who creep, fly, crawl etc) are based on animals: https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/vinelike-robot-grows-the-rescue

14 & 15

example of robot: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8816327 https://citris-uc.org/research/project/void-networks-collapsed-structures-guide-development-rescue-millirobots/

16

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=8816327&casa_token=WpsDS4oGT2AAAAAA:iJbQgfzjKcnf21cUPZxHEAkCra6RpuMpBTYBvv8hOuDF6QOZfi7cUsPKLS_fYvwbQpcaz4OV&tag=1 Hybrid locomotion robot. Can fly and move over flat surfaces. Can search for victims and transport goods. In the article is explained technically how the robot works and some experimental results.

17

http://www.iaarc.org/publications/fulltext/isarc2000-183_TC1.pdf Niet over robots, maar een case study van wat er moet gebeuren in case of a collapsed buidling.

18

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329439908_Search_and_rescue_with_autonomous_flying_robots_through_behavior-based_cooperative_intelligence about UAV’s. Not as a new kind of robot. But behavior based intelligence. Which algorithms can help speed up the process of finding people using UAV’s.

19

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/admi.202001300 Hoe insecten/dieren gebruikt kunnen worden als inspiratie voor robots. Hoe ze zich voortbewegen en ook adhesion aan materialen (tegen muur aan bijv)

20

https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85093081692&origin=resultslist&sort=plf-f&src=s&nlo=&nlr=&nls=&sid=7bd983d88e1798184fce5a0e1071169f&sot=b&sdt=b&sl=39&s=TITLE-ABS-KEY%28robots+search+and+rescue%29&relpos=22&citeCnt=0&searchTerm= This robot has a special way of moving. It can move over flat terrain, rough terrain and can climb stairs. Can be used for search and rescue.

21

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=5981564&casa_token=cxK4I_t1RV4AAAAA:3aeaFhY96rh8KRs3NGsWOYrYBU8foZO2zc1YcUTSjEBeeLttnqpoMe-c1c1JC2M1dWJjuIwu&tag=1 Dogs are very helpful in locating victims. This article describes how robots can help overcome the flaws of using dogs. For example collecting data and the location where the dog found the survivor. This way the location is known even when rescue workers could not follow the dog to the location. Using dogs, transportation is not a problem, since the dog can bring the robot to the desired location.

22

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921889018300861 An overview of different kinds of snakebods. How well do they do in different environments in comparison to each other.

23

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=8468633&casa_token=Z494rUBUxg4AAAAA:K90fM7I63ioYbOmgKj4__7mvA7QkL_AEFHxnBVDy6N6RVTZAnlW_mKTAPO9LfHbC0ciX0G0F This article explains how a certain snakebod was used after an earthquake in mexico. Procedure, outcome and limitations are discussed.

24

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qevIIQHrJZg This video shows the latest advancements in the snake robot and a few applications on how to use these robots.

25

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/1521744?casa_token=tlTxBuOeqq4AAAAA:t68_hRfeZoy6i8Rq8ZqytpYfUBon5JRBGsL7ceVYgRPEAVNSfSoyysJ0HlDQLEcmcAPPHQXu This article talks about the robots and systems implemented in japan after large natural disasters hit japan.

Logbook

Week 1 and 2

Name	Student ID	Time spent	Tasks
Jasmijn de Joode	1358073	h	idk
Robin Foppen	id	h	idk
Mirre Bosma	1266489	h	idk
Dirk de Leeuw	1358081	4.5h	Problem statement (2h) Research (2.5h)
Job van Heumen	id	h	idk

References