{"title":"Safe teleoperation of a quadrotor using FastSLAM","authors":"J. Mendes, R. Ventura","doi":"10.1109/SSRR.2012.6523878","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/SSRR.2012.6523878","url":null,"abstract":"Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) provide many advantages in Search and Rescue (SaR) scenarios, such as the capacity for remote inspection over areas that are difficult to reach by ground vehicles. Moreover, it can carry small payloads, such as first aid equipment, over large distances. However, the teleoperation of UAVs often demands extensive training, since even well trained pilots are prone to mistakes, resulting frequently in collisions of the vehicle with obstacles. This paper presents a method to assist the tele-operation of a quadrotor using an obstacle avoidance approach. The target scenario is SaR operation in unknown, unstructured, GPS-denied environments, such as warehouses or other buildings. A short-term rough map of the nearby environment is constructed using sonar sensors. This map is constructed using FastSLAM to allow tracking of the vehicle position with respect to the map. The map is then used to (1) override operator commands that may lead to a collision, and (2) perform evasive maneuvers whenever collision is imminent. A simple active perception routine is used to orient one of the sensors to an unknown area, in case the UAV is ordered to move towards an unmapped area. Experimental results using the USARsim simulator are presented. Further testing was conducted in a real quadcopter, allowing a preliminary validation of the proposed methods.","PeriodicalId":408300,"journal":{"name":"2012 IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics (SSRR)","volume":"124 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122484035","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A. Ferworn, Cornell Wright, Jimmy Tran, Chao Li, H. Choset
{"title":"Dog and snake marsupial cooperation for urban search and rescue deployment","authors":"A. Ferworn, Cornell Wright, Jimmy Tran, Chao Li, H. Choset","doi":"10.1109/SSRR.2012.6523887","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/SSRR.2012.6523887","url":null,"abstract":"One of the many challenges in developing ground response robots for Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) is endowing them with mobility that allows traversal of challenging terrain. In a preliminary study we introduced a new approach to the mobility problem that utilizes USAR dogs to deliver robots close to human victims in rubble. The results indicated that some search dogs are able to carry a small robot to a victim. This paper extends the original work - this time employing a more capable snake robot. Snake robots have much better maneuverability within rubble than wheeled or tracked robots. Unfortunately they are very slow - making timely rubble traversal a moot point. The premise of this work is that our hybrid system exhibits the advantages of rapid canine mobility with the flexibility and sensing capability of a snake robot.","PeriodicalId":408300,"journal":{"name":"2012 IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics (SSRR)","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128434900","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cindy L. Bethel, Daniel W. Carruth, Teena M. Garrison
{"title":"Discoveries from integrating robots into SWAT team training exercises","authors":"Cindy L. Bethel, Daniel W. Carruth, Teena M. Garrison","doi":"10.1109/SSRR.2012.6523920","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/SSRR.2012.6523920","url":null,"abstract":"This research discusses the results of two field evaluations associated with the integration of a ground robot within SWAT team operations. The results indicate that officers preferred having the robot in a Point (first man in) role to having the robot located in the Rear-Guard (last man in) role. The results indicate that the officers reported the robot to be more appealing, trustworthy, cooperative, and helpful in the Point role. They also expressed that they felt less stressed and pressured when the robot was in this role versus having the robot following the team. The robot serving in the Point role was viewed as more integrated with the team and the team liked the robot more than when it was in the Rear-Guard role. The survey results indicate that there were no differences in responses when comparing two different ground robots in the Point role; however during debriefing discussions and from anecdotal comments made by SWAT team officers, a strong preference was expressed for the more rugged, reliable, slower paced Husky A200 robot.","PeriodicalId":408300,"journal":{"name":"2012 IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics (SSRR)","volume":"50 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127051384","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Underground mining robot: A CSIR project","authors":"Jeremy J. Green","doi":"10.1109/SSRR.2012.6523868","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/SSRR.2012.6523868","url":null,"abstract":"The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa is currently developing a robot for the inspection of the ceiling (hanging-wall) in an underground gold mine. The robot autonomously navigates the 30 meter long by 3 meter wide, by 1 meter high stope area, while scanning the hanging-wall to generate a thermal 3-D map. Data is then analyzed to identify cooler regions that are not consistent with the hanging-wall topography. These are then shown to the miners in a 3-D visualization environment such that remedial action can be taken, and all miners are aware of the potentially dangerous areas in the working area. The project is a collaborative effort between three units within the CSIR. The Centre for Mining Innovation (CMI) is the project lead unit and is developing the sensors needed for underground data acquisition related to the safety application. The body of the robot is being developed by the Mechatronics and Micro-Manufacturing (MMM) group. The software component is being developed by the Mobile Intelligent Autonomous Systems (MIAS) Group. The project is currently completing the technical prototype for the system that will be demonstrated in a specially constructed test facility.1.","PeriodicalId":408300,"journal":{"name":"2012 IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics (SSRR)","volume":"256 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133282033","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
G. A. G. Ricardez, Akihiko Yamaguchi, J. Takamatsu, T. Ogasawara
{"title":"Asymmetric velocity moderation: A reactive strategy for human safety","authors":"G. A. G. Ricardez, Akihiko Yamaguchi, J. Takamatsu, T. Ogasawara","doi":"10.1109/SSRR.2012.6523904","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/SSRR.2012.6523904","url":null,"abstract":"As Human-Robot Interaction becomes closer, it is necessary to seek human safety so that the robot does not harm the human when the human ventures into the robot's workspace. Therefore, we propose a reactive strategy for human safety called Asymmetric Velocity Moderation. Our proposed method restricts the velocity of the end-effector according to the distance between human and robot. Moreover, our method considers the displacement vector which is the vector formed by the closest points between human and robot. Therefore, we do not consider only the distance but also the direction. The reason to consider the direction is that even though the velocity directed towards the human should be firmly restricted if the distance is short, we can relax the restriction of the velocity directed away from the human even if the distance is short. Thus, by introducing the angle between the displacement vector and the end-effector velocity vector we can improve the trade-off between safety and efficiency. We carried out experiments with a human-size humanoid robot and a human subject standing next to each other, and made them perform independent tasks. Through these experiments, we verified that our method not only provides human safety but also copes with the trade-off between human safety and the efficiency of the robot when performing a task.","PeriodicalId":408300,"journal":{"name":"2012 IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics (SSRR)","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121390903","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Consistent decentralized graphical SLAM with anti-factor down-dating","authors":"Alexander G. Cunningham, V. Indelman, F. Dellaert","doi":"10.1109/SSRR.2012.6523910","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/SSRR.2012.6523910","url":null,"abstract":"This report presents our recent and ongoing work developing a consistent decentralized data fusion approach for robust multi-robot SLAM in dangerous, unknown environments. The DDF-SAM 2.0 approach extends our previous work by combining local and neighborhood information in a single, consistent augmented local map, without the overly conservative to avoiding information double-counting in the previous DDF-SAM approach. We introduce the anti-factor as a means to subtract information in graphical SLAM systems, and illustrate its use to both replace information in an incremental solver and to cancel out neighborhood information from shared summarized maps. Evaluations in a synthetic example environment demonstrate that we avoid double-counting information.","PeriodicalId":408300,"journal":{"name":"2012 IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics (SSRR)","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126358911","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"GPS-INS-BARO hybrid navigation system taking into account ground effect for autonomous unmanned helicopter","authors":"H. Nakanishi, S. Kanata, T. Sawaragi","doi":"10.1109/SSRR.2012.6523885","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/SSRR.2012.6523885","url":null,"abstract":"Autonomous unmanned helicopters are useful in disaster response activities, but their reliability needs improvement to broaden its application area. GPS-INS hybrid navigation systems using Kalman Filter have been used to improve the reliability of autonomous unmanned helicopters, but they are not robust against the absence of GPS measurements. The vertical accuracy of GPS measurement is less than horizontal ones. The vertical channel of INS is unstable. Adding the altitude sensor to GPS-INS hybrid navigation system is expected to increase the accuracy and improve reliability. Barometric altimeter is not so accurate, but it is widely used because of its convenience. For unmanned helicopters, though, it is known that the barometer altitude deviate downward from the actual altitude, where the helicopter is close to the ground. This phenomena is due to the ground effect. This paper describes the method to build GPS-INS-BARO hybrid navigation system, which takes into account the ground effect for the autonomous unmanned helicopter. We adopted a centralized approach to integrate different sensors with asynchronous measurement updates. The parameter sets for successful estimation were shown using numerical simulation results.","PeriodicalId":408300,"journal":{"name":"2012 IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics (SSRR)","volume":"46 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133108017","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Planning random path distributions for ambush games in unstructured environments","authors":"Emmanuel Boidot, E. Feron","doi":"10.1109/SSRR.2012.6523899","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/SSRR.2012.6523899","url":null,"abstract":"Operating vehicles in adversarial environments require non-conventional planning techniques. A two-player, zero-sum non-cooperative game is introduced, and solved via a linear program. An extension is proposed to construct networks displaying good representations of the environment characteristics, while offering acceptable results for the technique used. Sensitivity of the solution to the LP solver algorithm is identified. The planner's performances are finally assessed by comparison with those of conventional planners. Results are used to formulate secondary objectives to the problem.","PeriodicalId":408300,"journal":{"name":"2012 IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics (SSRR)","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126298671","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}