Interoperability in a Heterogeneous Team of Search and Rescue Robots

Abstract

Search and rescue missions are complex operations. A disaster scenario is generally unstructured, time-varying and unpredictable. This poses several challenges for the successful deployment of unmanned technology. The variety of operational scenarios and tasks lead to the need for multiple robots of different types, domains and sizes. A priori planning of the optimal set of assets to be deployed and the definition of their mission objectives are generally not feasible as information only becomes available during mission. The ICARUS project responds to this challenge by developing a heterogeneous team composed by different and complementary robots, dynamically cooperating as an interoperable team. This chapter describes our approach to multi-robot interoperability, understood as the ability of multiple robots to operate together, in synergy, enabling multiple teams to share data, intelligence and resources, which is the ultimate objective of ICARUS project. It also includes the analysis of the relevant standardization initiatives in multi-robot multi-domain systems, our implementation of an interoperability framework and several examples of multi-robot cooperation of the ICARUS robots in realistic search and rescue missions.

Collaborative Multi-Robot Search and Rescue: Planning, Coordination, Perception, and Active Vision

“…The design of a generic ground station able to accommodate a wide variety of unmanned vehicles has been one of the focuses of the DARIUS project [50]. The approach to interoperability taken within the ICARIUS project is described in detail in [51]. The project outcomes included a library for multi-robot cooperation in SAR missions that assumes that the Robot Operating System (ROS) is the middleware utilized across all robots involved in the mission.…”

“…ROS is the de facto standard in robotics industry and research [52]. In [51], the authors also characterize typical robot roles, levels of autonomy for different types of robots, levels of interoperability, and robot capabilities.…”

A Comprehensive Review on Design of Autonomous Robotic Boat for Rescue Applications

“…PENShip is equipped with only a camera sensor, which is lighter than other sensors. In [11], the authors described the SAR missions and the involved methodologies and operations. e scenario during a disaster is often unpredictable, unstructured, and time varying, which means that there are many challenges for the successful implementation of the unmanned vehicle [12][13][14].…”

Demonstrating interoperability between unmanned ground systems and command and control systems

“…In order to maximise the interoperability between the heterogeneous ICARUS fleet and to decouple between the custom implementations on the different robot platforms, the ICARUS project adopted an approach where the different robotic systems were adapted to a single standardised external interface. This standard interface is heavily based upon JAUS and UDP, but defines some extra features that are specifically required for heterogeneous search and rescue robotic systems, such as fleet management, real-time robot and sensor discovery and dynamic self-reconfiguring software-defined radio communications (López et al, 2017). As an example: all the aerial platforms use MAVLink as a messaging protocol, the large UGV uses a proprietary protocol, the medium uses ROS, while the small UGV uses the FinROC software architecture.…”