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Robotics in Hazardous Applications

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Springer Handbook of Robotics

Abstract

Robotics researchers have worked hard to realize a long-awaited vision: machines carrying people from burning buildings or tunneling through collapsed rock falls to reach trapped miners. In this chapter we review progress. Researchers still have many challenges ahead of them but there has been remarkable progress in some areas. Hazardous environments present special challenges for the accomplishment of desired tasks depending on the nature and magnitude of the hazards. Hazards may be present in the form of radiological or toxicity dangers to potential explosions. Technology that specialized engineering companies can develop and sell without active help from researchers marks the frontier of feasibility. Just inside this border lie teleoperated robots for explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) and for underwater engineering work. Even with the typical tenfold reduction in manipulation performance imposed by the limits of todayʼs telepresence and teleoperation technology, robots usually offer a more cost-effective solution. Most hazardous applications lie far beyond the frontier, although researchers managed to establish some limited inroads by the turn of the 21st century. Fire fighting, rescue operations, removing high-level nuclear contamination, reactor decommissioning, tunneling through rock falls, and most landmine and unexploded ordnance problems still present many unsolved problems.

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Abbreviations

AP:

antipersonnel

ASM:

advanced servomanipulator

AT:

antitank

AV:

antivehicle

CB:

cluster bombs

CEA:

Commission de Energie Atomique

EMS:

electrical master–slave manipulators

EOD:

explosive ordnance disposal

GICHD:

Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining

GPS:

global positioning system

HMD:

head-mounted display

HMX:

high melting point explosives

ICBL:

International Campaign to Ban Landmines

IED:

improvised explosive device

LAN:

local-area network

MACA:

Afghanistan Mine Action Center

MEMS:

microelectromechanical systems

MR:

magnetorheological

MR:

multiple reflection

MR:

multirobot tasks

MSM:

master–slave manipulator

NASA:

National Aeronautics and Space Agency

RF:

radiofrequency

ROV:

remotely operated vehicle

TSEE:

teleoperated small emplacement excavator

UAV:

unmanned aerial vehicles

US:

ultrasound

UXO:

unexploded ordnance

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Acknowledgements

James Trevelyan acknowledges Surya Singh for detailed suggestions on the original draft, and would also like to thank the many unnamed mine clearance experts who have provided guidance and comments over many years, as well as Prof. S. Hirose, Scanjack, Way Industry, and Total Marine Systems for providing photographs.

William R. Hamel would like to acknowledge the US Department of Energyʼs Robotics Crosscutting Program and all of his colleagues at the national laboratories and universities for many years of dealing with remote hazardous operations, and all of his collaborators at the Field Robotics Center at Carnegie Mellon University, particularly James Osborn, who were pivotal in developing ideas for future telerobots.

Sungchul Kang ackowledges Changhyun Cho, Woosub Lee, Dongsuk Ryu at KIST, Korea for their providing valuable documents and pictures. He also appreciates Munsang Kim for his leading projects that have produced many of research achievements related to Sect. 48.3 enabling technologies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, 6009, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

    James P. Trevelyan

  2. Cognitive Robotics Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Hawolgok-dong 39-1, Sungbuk-ku, 136-791, Seoul, Korea

    Sung-Chul Kang PhD

  3. Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering, University of Tennessee, 414 Dougherty Engineering Building, 37996-2210, Knoxville, TN, USA

    William R. Hamel Prof

Authors
  1. James P. Trevelyan
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  2. Sung-Chul Kang PhD
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  3. William R. Hamel Prof
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to James P. Trevelyan , Sung-Chul Kang PhD or William R. Hamel Prof .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. PRISMA Lab, Dipartimento di Informatica e Sistemistica, Universitá degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, 80125, Napoli, Italy, Via Claudio 21

    Bruno Siciliano Prof.

  2. Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, Stanford University, 94305-9010, Stanford, CA, USA

    Oussama Khatib Prof.

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Trevelyan, J.P., Kang, SC., Hamel, W.R. (2008). Robotics in Hazardous Applications. In: Siciliano, B., Khatib, O. (eds) Springer Handbook of Robotics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-30301-5_49

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