Urban Search and Rescue Initiative 2005 Avi Siegel, Director of Carnegie Urban Rescue Force Eddie Lu, Chief Evaluation Officer Eric West, West Campus Architect Debbie Hugh, Pittsburgh Architect David Rosenberg, Control and Vision Expert David Choi, Graduate Student Jason Geist, LEGOLand Consultant General Robotics 2005

Introduction The recent natural disasters in Louisiana and Pakistan had highlighted a great need by rescue workers for improved rescue efforts. There is a growing demand for highly mobile, all terrain and easy to use mobile robots to assist in Urban Search and Rescue efforts. General Robotics 2005

Purpose Carnegie Urban Rescue Force (CURF) has started a initiative with the General Robotics Class of Fall 2005 to develop a fleet of highly compatible robots to help in the rescue effort. General Robotics 2005

Design Criteria Size Constraints –Width: 6.0” –Depth: 8.5” –Height: 6.0” –Includes the vision system Tele-operation Vision System Extra Parts –Extra LEGO motor –$50 spending limit for LEGO parts General Robotics 2005

Design Proposal Write-up: –Basic schematics –Descriptions –Special features –Obstacles –Climbing –Steering –Controllability Hand in by Tuesday, October 25 Note: You cannot continue on with the prototyping phase if your design proposal does not meet these requirements General Robotics 2005

Last Year’s Scenario Location: Scaife Building Disaster: Hurricane Rescue Efforts: H1ghlander General Robotics 2005

Building Floor Plan General Robotics 2005

Zone by Zone Analysis Zone 1: Courtyard –Stability: High Zone 2: Room with Stairs –Stability: Medium Zone 3: Titled On-ramp –Stability: Low-Medium Zone 4: Danger Room –Stability: Low General Robotics 2005

Common Difficulties Rubble and debris Collapsed objects Unstable structures Narrow hallways Obstacles Stairs General Robotics 2005

This Year’s Scenario Campus History Volcano Rescue Team General Robotics 2005

Building Floor Plan General Robotics 2005

Designing Good Robot Platform for Adverse Terrain Drive trains revisited Tank Treads Differential drive configurations Center of Gravity Mechanical Robustness Suspensions Testing General Robotics 2005

Drive Trains Revisited High-torque situations Back driving Foreign objects Weak links General Robotics 2005

Tank Treads In the past, people forgot: Slack on top or bottom depending upon location of driven wheel Idler on top of tread can increase tension and area of drive wheel in contact with tread General Robotics 2005

Differential Drive Advantages in steering What happens if you lose a DOF? General Robotics 2005

Center of Gravity Masses –Handy Board –LEGO motors –Added mass (batteries, fishing weights, etc.) High CG is bad Consider CG in relation to length and width Traction General Robotics 2005

Mechanical Robustness Masses Internal forces Odd forces No parts sticking out Zip Ties General Robotics 2005

Suspensions 1st: Wheel/track suspension –squishyness of wheels –span of tracks 2nd: Active Dampening Suspensions –Tube things in kits –LEGO shock absorbers –Random foam, springs 3rd: Passive suspensions General Robotics 2005

Testing Torque Tests Stall drive wheels Hill Tests Various terrain Ground clearance Break-over angle Ridges General Robotics 2005

Camera and Camera Mount General Robotics 2005

Pan and Tilt Camera Mount Camera moves Robot doesn’t Greater visibility Obstacles General Robotics 2005

Control and Control Issues Robot has 1st person perspective Pilot has 3rd person perspective (sometimes occluded) Moveable Camera Where to put intelligence? Autonomy? General Robotics 2005

Control: Robot Intelligence Robot has encoders –go(int inches) –turn(int degrees) Ground sensors –feelers Inclination sensors –mercury switches –rolling ball inclinometers, –accelerometers Internal sensor Self-diagnostics General Robotics 2005

Control: Robot Autonomy Autonomous functions to deploy equipment Autonomously navigate occluded areas (i.e. wall following) Automate compounded functions such as expanding General Robotics 2005

“Smart Mechanism” Mechanisms that compound DOFs –Can do different things depending on which way turned Release mechanisms Expanding Mechanisms Locking Mechanisms –Can lock an expansion or an appendage into position me (and other TAs) for consulting General Robotics 2005

Neat Ideas Marsupial Robots –Robin Murphy, USF Shape Reconfiguring robots –Inuktun.com Asymmetry NASA Rovers General Robotics 2005 Current off road vehicle examples –Land Rover –Jeep –Hummer –Moon Rover –Mars Rovers –ATVs –The Animal (ok, old) –Other Toys

Design Exploration Qualitative analysis –Mobility, user friendliness, coolness Quantitative analysis –Top speed, ground clearance, torque For the proposal, we would like you to think numerically. General Robotics 2005

Prototype Evaluation 6 of the 8 checkpoints Ability to move and turn, Use the camera Surmount various obstacles. None of these require autonomy. This must be done during lab hours. November 1 st at 8pm (the latest) General Robotics 2005