Development of a usar robot considering camera view angle and grouser shape of crawler

Abstract

The development of a teleoperated robot for USAR(Urban Search And Rescue) activities has been discussed in the paper. Suitable camera view angle of the USAR robot has been examined by using simulation and it has been shown that wider angle than common usual camera is better for the robot. Isotropic Bumping and Touching Object(IBO) has been proposed for the grouser of the robot crawler in order to have better traveling performance on complex terrain. The performance has been measured through the climbing on a spiral stair. The effectiveness has been evaluated through Robocup Rescue Robot League(RRRL), and the developed robot had won 1st place in RRRL Japan Open 2007 and 2008, and 4th place in RRRL World Championship in 2008.