Designed and implementation of a semi-autonomous search robot

Abstract

This paper describes a design and implementation for a semi-autonomous search robot, which could be extremely valuable as search platforms for the application in the situations which is involving hazard and dangerous circumstance such as virulent chemical material, radioactivation or earthquake relief. The robot has the novel structure with tracks. The Robot mechanism has been analysis, the flippers in front should help the robot climbing the stairs or some other obstacles. The relationship between the robot's movement and the pulse measurement from the encoders has been developed. According to the task requirements, several kinds of sensors, such as ultrasonic sensor, infrared sensor, GPS receiver and so on, are on board to detect the environment where the robot locates on. A friendly human-robot interface is designed which is used to send the control commands to the robot from far off. Depending on the high efficient wireless transmission system, the robot could work leaving the operator 1500m in the field. A semi-autonomous on local control method has been adopted for the robot to integrate teleoperation and local autonomous navigation. Experiment results in the building and field show that the robot could fit the requirement of the scene and is a efficient tools for the people who need to be in dangerous environment.