Mobile Robot in Coal Mine Disaster Surveillance

In teleoperation of a crawler robot in a disasterstricken enclosed space, distress of the crawler robot due to communication breakdown is a problem. We present a robot teleoperation system using LoRaWAN as a subcommunication infrastructure to solve this problem. In this system, the crawler robot is operated by teleoperation using a subcommunication infrastructure in a place where a wireless local area network (LAN) communication is possible. In this study, we assume an environment in which the crawler robot must ascend and descend stairs to evacuate to a place where wireless LAN communication is possible. In addition, the disaster-stricken environment is considered as an environment where obstacles are expected to suddenly occur, and the crawler robot has difficulty avoiding obstacles on the stairs. In this paper, we propose a teleoperation communication protocol that considers the risk of sudden appearance of obstacles and confirm its effectiveness using evaluation experiments in a real environment.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interventional Teleoperation Protocol that Considers Stair Climbing or Descending of Crawler Robots in Low Bit-rate Communication

Sakaki¹,

Sawai²

2023

“…In the implementation of disaster reduction activities, information needs to be gathered to determine the damage status [1][2]. Existing infrastructure, such as surveillance cameras, drone aerial photographs, and rescue teams, can be used to gather such information [3][4][5][6]. However, in some cases, the existing infrastructure cannot be used because of infrastructure malfunction or lack of power supply.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changing Communication Path to Maintain Connectivity of Mobile Robots in Multi-Robot System using Multistage Relay Networks

Odake¹,

Sawai²

2021

Mobile robots are being increasingly used to gather information from disaster sites and prevent further damage in disaster areas. Previous studies discussed a multi-robot system that uses a multistage relay backbone network to gather information in a closed space after a disaster. In this system, the mobile robot explores its search range by switching the connected nodes. Here it is necessary to maintain the communication quality required for the teleoperation of the mobile robot and to send and receive packets between the operator PC and the mobile robot. However, the mobile robot can become isolated when it is not able to maintain the communication quality required for teleoperations in the communication path after changing the nodes. This paper proposes a method to change the communication path of a mobile robot while maintaining its communication connectivity. In the proposed method, the mobile robot changes its route while maintaining communication connectivity without any communication loss time by connecting to two nodes.

“…In the implementation of disaster reduction activities, information should be gathered to determine the damage status [1][2]. Helicopter aerial photographs, existing infrastructure (such as surveillance cameras), and rescue teams can be used to gather such information [3][4][5][6]. However, in enclosed spaces, such as tunnels and underground malls, it is difficult to gather information using helicopters.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multistage Relay Network Topology using IEEE802.11ax for Construction of Multi-robot Environment

Odake¹,

Sawai²,

Takagi³

et al. 2021

This paper describes an information gathering system comprising multiple mobile robots and a wireless sensor network. In general, a single robot searches an environment using a teleoperation system in a multistage relay network while maintaining communication quality. However, the search range of a single robot is limited, and it is difficult to gather comprehensive information in large-scale facilities. This paper proposes a multistage relay network topology using IEEE802.11ax for information gathering by multi-robot. In this multi-robot operation, a mobile robot carries wireless relay nodes and deploys them into the environment. After a network is constructed, each robot connects to this network and gathers information. An operator then controls each robot remotely while monitoring its end-to-end communication quality with each mobile robot in the network. This paper proposes a method assuming the end-to-end throughput with multiple mobile robots. The validity of the proposed method is then inspected via an evaluation experiment on multi-robot teleoperation. The experimental results show that the network constructed with the proposed topology is capable of maintaining the communication connectivity of more than three mobile robots.