Development of Practical Air-floating-type Active Scope Camera and User Evaluations for Urban Search and Rescue

Fujikawa, Takumi; Yamauchi, Yoshiko; Ambe, Yuichi; Konyo, Masashi; Tadakuma, Kenjiro; Tadokoro, Satoshı

doi:10.1109/ssrr.2019.8848966

Cited by 8 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Torus-shaped structures for extension and steering have also been proposed (Hawkes et al, 2017). Jet-actuated mechanisms that can directly generate translational forces to steer and propel by expelling fluid jets have recently been developed (Silva Rico et al, 2017;Ishii et al, 2018;Fujikawa et al, 2019;Ambe et al, 2022;Yamauchi et al, 2022a;Yamauchi et al, 2022b;Ambe et al, 2023;Huynh et al, 2023;Maezawa et al, 2023).…”

Section: Related Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of a remotely controllable 4 m long aerial-hose-type firefighting robot

Yamauchi,

Maezawa,

Ambe

et al. 2023

Front. Robot. AI

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In a fire outbreak, firefighters are expected to rapidly extinguish fires to stop the spread of damage and prevent secondary disasters. We proposed the concept of a dragon firefighter (DFF), which is a flying-hose-type firefighting robot. We developed a 3.6 m long DFF equipped with two nozzle units and achieved stable flight. However, the system was not yet completed because the root of the robot, which should have been operated remotely, was operated manually. In addition, the system’s reliability was insufficient to successfully repeat the demonstration several times. The development of a robot demonstration system is crucial for the practical application of such a firefighting robot. In this study, we developed a demonstration system for a remotely controllable 4 m flying firehose robot for demonstration at the World Robot Summit 2020 (WRS 2020) opening ceremony in Fukushima as a milestone. This paper focuses on the following issues: 1): installation of the remotely controllable mobile base, 2): redesign of the water channels (the sizes of nozzle outlets) to get enough thrusts to fly with a fire engine, 3): development of nozzle units with a larger movable range (1.5 times larger than the conventional nozzle) in addition to waterproofing technique to improve system reliability, and 4): redesign of a passive damping mechanism to ensure better stability. Thus, a firefighting demonstration was successfully conducted at the opening ceremony of the World Robot Summit 2020 in Fukushima, Japan, and we discuss the lessons learned through the demonstration. We found that the developed DFF system incorporating a mobile base could achieve remote fire extinguishing.

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Section: Related Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of a remotely controllable 4 m long aerial-hose-type firefighting robot

Yamauchi,

Maezawa,

Ambe

et al. 2023

Front. Robot. AI

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“…Similarly, an idea of long flying hose for firefighting was proposed, and the jet nozzle was developed [14]. We have proposed an active scope camera whose head is controlled by the directional control of an air jet [15]- [17]. We have also developed a jet-actuated continuum robot, the Dragon Firefighter (DFF), which has several nozzle units on its flexible body, inside of which pressurized water flows [18]- [21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Realizing Large Shape Deformations of a Flying Continuum Robot With a Passive Rotating Nozzle Unit That Enlarges Jet Directions in Three-Dimensional Space

et al. 2022

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Flexible continuum robots have considerable potential for use in exploring intricate spaces, and their ability to make large body shape deformations can increase the inspection area. We previously proposed a jet-actuated flying continuum robot for extinguishing fires. The main challenge in implementing large shape deformations is accommodating the twisting of the body that results from the deformation. To address this problem, we proposed a two-dimensional passive rotating nozzle unit that can expand the directionality of net force against torsion; however, it has not yet been tested on a flying robot. In this study, we achieved the large shape deformations of a jet-actuated flying continuum robot using an improved passive rotating nozzle unit that can handle three-dimensional (3D) force. First, we developed a model of the improved nozzle unit and confirmed that the unit can increase the net force direction. Herein, the design strategy for the rotary damper to handle the instability that arises from motor limitations is discussed. The stabilized flight controller was applied to a continuum robot with the nozzle unit. Simulation results showed that the 2 m robot could perform large head bends (from 0 • to 135 • ). Although the previous fixed nozzle unit twisted by approximately 40 • , which made the extra movable range of the nozzles effectively zero, the proposed nozzle unit maintained the movable range to avoid twisting. We experimentally confirmed that the nozzle unit can expand the direction of the 3D net force, and that a large shape bending of approximately ±90 • can be achieved using a 1.6 m flying robot.INDEX TERMS Fluid jet, continuum robot, mechanism design, dynamics.

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Air-Jet Levitation of Continuum Robots: Stable Head Floating by Passive Thrust Vectoring for Enhancing Mobility

Ambe,

Kamio,

Yamauchi

et al. 2023

J Intell Robot Syst

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Flexible, continuum-type robots can access narrow spaces in debris areas during search-and-rescue missions. However, their current problem is the lifting capability of the head, which is necessary to surmount the rubble. This study proposes a passive-thrust vectoring method to stabilize head levitation for air-jet-actuated, long, continuum robots, and thus enhance their step-climbing abilities. An air jet can generate a thrust force that is sufficient for head levitation. A critical issue in levitation involves the backward bending of the head without using any air-jet control; however, thrust control is inappropriate because of the delay caused by the long channel. Therefore, the proposed method maintains the thrust direction constant. Sufficient conditions for global stability are derived and confirmed via dynamic simulations. The proposed method is simple and can be mechanically realized with a passive head-bending mechanism, thus contributing to a lightweight design. Experiments demonstrated that the developed air-floating-type, 7-m long robot, can achieve stabilized head levitation, and that the robot can climb a step with a height of 250 mm. Robot demonstrations in rubble justify the robot’s capacity to surmount the rubble. This passive-thrust vectoring method is expected to contribute to the future enhancement of the mobility of continuum robots owing to its simplicity and practicality.

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Development of Practical Air-floating-type Active Scope Camera and User Evaluations for Urban Search and Rescue

Cited by 8 publications

References 10 publications

Development of a remotely controllable 4 m long aerial-hose-type firefighting robot

Development of a remotely controllable 4 m long aerial-hose-type firefighting robot

Realizing Large Shape Deformations of a Flying Continuum Robot With a Passive Rotating Nozzle Unit That Enlarges Jet Directions in Three-Dimensional Space

Air-Jet Levitation of Continuum Robots: Stable Head Floating by Passive Thrust Vectoring for Enhancing Mobility

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