Autonomous Vehicle Emergency Recovery Tool: A Cooperative Robotic System for Car Extraction

Abstract

Vehicles have been proven to be an ideal means for terrorists because they can be meticulously prepared well in advance before being deployed in urban and public places. To increase the risk and burden of explosive ordnance disposal teams, third-party vehicles have also been used to block the access path to the explosive loaded vehicle. In this paper, we present a multirobot system that can remove vehicles from confined spaces with delicate handling, swiftly and in any direction to a safer disposal point. The new lifting robots, capable of omnidirectional movement, autonomously underride the identified vehicle and dock to its wheels for a synchronized lifting and extraction. The validity and efficiency of the novel robotic system is illustrated via experiments in an indoor parking lot, demonstrating successful autonomous navigation, docking, lifting, and extraction of a conventional car for a total covered distance of 20 m.