IROS 2011 Tutorial: Introduction to Rescue Robotics
Format: Half day tutorial
Abstract
This tutorial will introduce researchers to the
rescue robotics domain, enabling them to apply their research results to disaster
response and recovery or to re-direct their research. The focus will be on
quantifying what makes rescue robotics different from IED or military robots,
including adoption, reinforced by videos and data from actual disasters.
The tutorial will consist of six modules. The introductory module will i) introduce attendees to the prevention, preparedness,
response, and recovery cycle nomenclature and general response and recovery
culture; ii) compare the technological needs, environmental conditions, and
operational constraints of urban search and rescue (building collapses,
terrorism, hurricanes, and earthquakes), wilderness search and rescue,
underground mine rescue, nuclear responses, and recovery; iii) provide an
international history of deployments from all known agencies and lessons
learned, iv) describe the used and desired levels of autonomy; and v) the
adoption process for equipment and the ASTM standards process. Three modules
will discuss the unique applications and research issues for unmanned aerial,
marine, and ground vehicles, followed by a human-robot interaction module. Each
module will amplify the material through case studies and will identify open
research issues. The sixth module will offer suggestions on conducting field
research, interacting with response professionals, describe legal and ethical
considerations, and discuss how to plan and manage logistics.
Extensive video, data sets, and information on why
or why not robots were used at recent disasters including USA Hurricane Ike, Haiti
Earthquake, Chile Mine Collapse, New Zealand Mine Collapse, New Zealand
Earthquake, and Japan Quake/Tsunami/Fukushima Reactors will be used to
illustrate key points.
Students
will be provided with a copy of the tutorial, list of helpful emergency response
websites, and references.
Instructor
Dr.
Robin R. Murphy
Director,
Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue
Raytheon
Professor of Computer Science and Engineering
Texas
A&M University
Dr. Murphy
is an IEEE Fellow and has participated in 13 disasters, starting with the first
use of rescue robots at the World Trade Center and most recently assisting with
the use of UAVs for inspecting the Fukushima reactors and deploying UMVs to
northern Japan for search and recovery operations. She has won numerous awards
for her rescue robotics research, is a WIRED Alpha Geek, and was named one of
the most influential women in technology by Fast Company.
Tentative
schedule
0830 Introduction
to the domain
0930 UGV with
case studies
1015 UAS with
case studies
1100 UMV with
case studies
1130 Human-robot
interaction
1200 Field
work
1230 tutorial
ends
Motivation and objectives
The recent series of disasters has increased
awareness of the possibilities of robotics for assistance. However, emergency response is an arcane domain reflecting many
different applications. The
technological demands or possibly applications for robots are not well or
correctly reported by media coverage or competitions, leading many researchers
to work on the wrong problem or miss critical opportunities to contribute. The
objectives are to introduce the community to the ÒhiddenÓ side of disasters and
the backstory on why or why not which robots were used at recent disasters and
to encourage the community to engage in rescue robotics as an application
domain for their work.
Primary/secondary audience
The primary audience is academic or industrial
researchers and developers who see their work in mobility, biomimetic platforms,
autonomy, sensors, SLAM, mobile manipulation, cyber-physical systems, and
human-robot interaction as relevant to disaster response but do not have
sufficient understanding to tailor their work or a path to transfer it to the
field. The secondary audiences are graduate students and junior researchers who
are looking for a domain with clear broader impacts or are participants in
rescue robot competitions who are interested in taking
their work to the Ònext level.Ó
Registration
See https://www.iros2011.org/workshops-and-tutorials.