Mobile platforms when negotiating steps and stairs should be able to control theirs posture in order to avoid sudden tilting or falls. In particular, when considering applications for search and rescue operations where users have a very limited time of operation, the motion on stairs should be automated as much as possible. In this way operators can concentrate on their tasks (i.e. search of survivors and/or exploration of dangerous environments) rather than having to focus on the stability of the vehicle. A simple but very effective mechanism called ldquotailrdquo is introduced. The mechanical design and its control method is presented together with several tests and experiments carried out with a simple tracked vehicle in real environments.

Fire brigades and special agencies are often demanded to operate for search and aid of human lives in extremely dangerous scenarios. It is very important to first verify the safety of the environment and to obtain remotely a clear image of the scenario inside buildings or underground spaces. Several studies have been addressing the possibility of using robotic tools to carry out safe operations. This contribution presents the development of the HELIOS team, consisting of five tracked robots for urban search and rescue. Two units are equipped with manipulators for the accomplishment of particular tasks, such as the handling of objects and opening doors; the other three units, equipped with cameras and laser range finders, are utilized to create virtual 3D maps of the explored environment. The three units can move autonomously while collecting the data by using a collaborative positioning system (CPS). After an overview on the specifications of the team of robots and with respect to previous publications, detailed information about the improvements of the robot mechanical design and control systems are introduced. Tests of the CPS system and HELIOS IX vehicle together with a typical mission experiment are presented and discussed.

The inspection of high-voltage transmission lines is a dangerous and time-consuming job, that relies on especially trained workers operating tens of meters above the ground, and close to live lines with thousands of volts. This paper presents the development of a tele-operated robot designed for preventive maintenance of high-voltage lines. The robot was designed with mobility in mind, so that cable spacers, suspension clamps and other obstacles, which so far have prevented the use of robots for inspection of high-voltage lines, would not hamper the operation of the machine. After careful considerations on mobility, the robot was designed, and a prototype was built. Results of tests, performed on facilities reproducing real field conditions, are also presented in this paper.

There have been several works proposing mobile robots for inspection of high-voltage transmission lines. Those studies addressed mostly locomotion issues, with little attention paid to the sensing task. However, the deployment of sensors around the cables is not an elementary operation. This work indicates which sensors may be most suitable for the inspection of transmission lines, and describes their assembly in a simple and compact structure (Sensor-Unit). In addition, it proposes several manipulator mechanisms (Sensor-Arm) to deploy sensors around the cables and to remove them when necessary. The mechanisms are compared taking into account practical aspects such as assembly, reliability, functionality and results of field experiments. Finally, the design of a high-quality camera for detailed inspection is also described.

Fire brigades and special rescue agencies are often demanded to operate for search and aid of human lives in extremely dangerous scenarios. The use of robotic tools can make those operations safer for the operators and more efficient in terms of time and allocation of resources. This contribution describes the development of the newest tracked vehicle HELIOS IX. This mobile platform equipped with a manipulator represents the first stage of a Japanese national founded project. It aims to the development of a robotic system to be utilized in extreme environments such as rescue operations in heavily stricken urban areas. With respect to the previous prototypes the mechanical design and the system architecture is described. A new gripper is also introduced and tested together with few mobility experiments of the platform.

This research aims to build a practical mobile robotic system to be used in actual humanitarian demining tasks. The basic system consists of a manipulator mounted on top of a mobile platform. For the purpose of building a practical and versatile mobile platform, the authors have already developed a 4-wheel autonomous buggy system called "Gryphon", as discussed in previous works. This paper addresses the development of an energy-efficient weight-compensated manipulator, which is composed of a 5-node parallel linkage. The manipulator was especially designed for antipersonnel mine detection and removal tasks. The weight-compensation concept and the principle of operation are discussed in detail, and the validity and usefulness of the manipulator, as well as of the whole robotic system, are demonstrated by real experiments.

In this research an arm-equipped vehicle for search and rescue operations is presented. The important features for tracked vehicles are introduced through an overview of the solutions so far developed. The concept and the motion capabilities of the new vehicle Helios VII are explained. Afterwards the first assembled prototype is validated by means of mechanical computer simulations and basic experiments on the real vehicle.

Landmines represent a clear threat to the civilian population in war-ravaged countries, and hamper peacekeeping and reconstruction efforts. The seriousness of this issue demands immediate automation of the mine detection and removal tasks, but until now only partial mechanization has been available. This paper proposes a versatile and feasible automated system based on mobile platforms to improve humanitarian demining, taking into account field requirements. Details of the development of the mobile platforms are presented, as well as experimental results. Special tools and components, also briefly described, are under development in order to maximize the range of applications of this system.

The demand for mobile robots for hazardous field tasks, such as rescue operations in disaster scenes or landmine detection and removal has been increasing in recent years. Since electrical infrastructure is seldom available in such situations, robots that rely on chemical batteries or/and tethered connections to external electric generators suffer severe limitations in operation time and mobility. A different approach is being sought in this research, which involves the use of a combustion engine for on-board electric generation. For practical purposes, the authors used a commercial 4-wheel buggy as the base platform. Some mechanical adaptations in the steering, throttle, gearshift and brake mechanisms were performed, and the developed mobile platform (Gryphon-I) can be computer controlled. This paper introduces new strategies for the control of Gryphon-I over uneven terrain, and the effectiveness of the proposed methods is evaluated experimentally.

Currently, most of the robotic systems use electric actuators and depend on chemical batteries as source of energy. However, this results in severe limitations to their range and time of autonomous operation, making it difficult to employ those robotic systems in remote areas or fields. In order to solve this problem, the authors have developed a mobile platform with energy-generation capability and mechanisms to drive it automatically. In this paper, a new autonomous control for the mobile platform is proposed, including telemetry features, especially focused on hyper-tether applications Those applications may include landmine detection/removal and forestry works in environments where the currently available systems cannot operate uninterruptedly for long periods of time.