Design and Mixed-Reality Teleoperation of a Quadruped-Manipulator Robot for SAR Tasks

Abstract

AbstractTechnological development within the robotics field has made it possible to generate great advances, developing complex bio-inspired systems, such as robots with legs. The same ones have great applicability within search and rescue (SAR) tasks. This type of robot stands out for its extraordinary ability to move within unstructured environments, overcome obstacles and adapt to different terrains. However, quadruped robots have gained space in the SAR-Tasks field over the last few years. Most implementations are limited to collecting information using different sensors, such as cameras, lasers, or microphones. This article seeks to simulate, implement and carry out the teleoperation through Mixed-Reality (M-R) of a quadruped robot equipped with a manipulator with six degrees of freedom, for which the ARTU-R robot (A1 Rescue Tasks Unitree Robot) has been used. One of the main contributions of this work focuses on improving the efficiency in executing tasks of handling and transporting medical equipment in post-disaster situations, using Mixed Reality with the ARTU-R robot and a robotic manipulator. To develop this proof of concept, Matlab has been used as a computational tool for optimizing the workspace of the integrated robot. Simulations have been carried out on Gazebo in reconstructed post-disaster environments to validate the robot’s functionality. At the same time, the effectiveness of the M-R system has been verified with field tests executing medical assistance tasks with the robot. The main results show a 21% increase in the efficiency of performing complex handling tasks using the proposed M-R system compared to conventional interfaces and the efficiency of using quadruped robots with manipulators for medical assistance tasks.KeywordsQuadruped robotMixed reality teleoperationROSArm manipulatorWalking robotsSearch and rescueGazebo