"DESIGN FOR TRAFFICABILITY“ OF KINEMATICALLY REDUNDANT LOCOMOTION SYSTEMS

Abstract

Building collapses are frequently accompanied by the entrapment of humans buried alive. The victims have to be localized and rescued. Here, mobile robots can act as mobile sensory units navigating through a field of debris transmitting important data to the rescue staff. The robots’ abilities of locomotion and their mobility and trafficability, respectively, are of major importance. Here, kinematically redundant locomotion systems possess high potentials. The paper deals with the conceptualization of such robots for urban search-and-rescue under the demand of an effective trafficability.