Soft robot helps to rescue victims in the rubble

When a big disaster occurs and the works collapse, people are trapped under the rubble. Victims in this toxic environment may be in danger and exhaustion. To help the rescue team search in the rubble, Lincoln Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology collaborates with the research team at the University of Notre Dame to develop a robot called Soft Pathfinding Robotic Observation Unit (Sprout). Sprout is a vine robot, a soft robot that can extend and overcome obstacles or wriggle in a small space. The fast response team can deploy Sprout under the collapsed project to explore, map and find the optimal entrance through the pile of debris, Phys.org On 2/4 reported.

“The urban rescue search environment may be harsh and challenging, where even the most sturdy technology has difficulty operating. The basic way of vine robots operates helps reduce many challenges that other platforms face,” Chad Council, a Sprout project member Do Nathaniel Hanson said.

The fast response team regularly integrates technology such as cameras and sensors into workflow to understand complex operating environment. However, many of these technologies have limitations. For example, the camera specially manufactured for rescue search and rescue activities can only be explored in a straight line inside the collapse. If a team wants to search more carefully in the rubble, they need to create holes to go to the next area. Robots are very suitable for exploration above rubble, but not suitable for searching in unstable narrow constructions and repair costs are very expensive if damaged. The challenge that Sprout is aiming to solve is how to go under the collapse of the collapse through the use of low -cost robots, easy to operate, can carry camera and sensor, and overcome winding roads.

Sprout consists of a bulging tube made from closed air material opened from a fixed base. This tube bulges with gas and a motor control motor deploying the robot. When the tube reaches deep into the rubble, it can bend around the corners and go through the narrow way. A camera and other sensors placed at the top of the photography tube and mapping the environment that the robot is detecting the way. The Sprout control operator is equal to adjust the direction, track the data display from the camera of the robot. Currently, Sprout can reach up to 3 meters far and the team is seeking to expand to 7.6 meters.

While manufacturing Sprout, the team has overcome some challenges related to the flexibility of the robot. Because robots are made of deformed materials that can be bent at many points, speculating and controlling the shape of the robot when it is deployed in a very difficult environment. Determining how to use air pressure inside the robot to navigate is essential to the system that the team reacts emergency. In addition, the research team must design pipe to minimize friction when the robot is long and the control engineer.

While the remote control system is a good start to assess the risk from the rubble, the team also finds new ways to apply robot technology such as using robots collected by robots to map the blank map under the rubble. To solve the problem, Hanson et al. Simulation allows them to create practical illustrations of the collapse and develop algorithms to map the space.

Lincoln laboratory tested Sprout with a quick response team in the Massachusetts Task 1 training area in Beverly, Massachusetts. The test allows researchers to improve the durability and flexibility of robots, learn how to deploy and control robots more effectively. They are planning a bigger field study in the spring of this year. Sensor in limited space is not a problem of the team that responds quickly to the disaster. The research team predicts their technology can be used in maintenance, military systems or essential infrastructure with this difficult position.