Walking Hexapod Robot in Disaster Recovery: Developing Algorithm for Terrain Negotiation and Navigation

Abstract

The catastrophic cyclone Sidr that wrecked havoc Bangladesh in 2007, tsunami hit most of the countries of Asia around Indian ocean in 2004, Katrina hit Arkansas in 2005, and the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centers in 2001 are clear indication that we are not prepared for disaster recovery at all. In all cases the infrastructure could not withstand the fury of nature, even in the case of WTC the NYPD was not prepared for such gigantic task of rescue mission. The conventional reaction to such disaster is not adequate; a new paradigm shift is needed to address such calamities utilizing all resources at hand. Disaster recovery is defined to be the emergency response function which deals with the collapse of man made structures (G. Nejat, 2006). In any disaster either man made or due to Mother nature, the elementary tasks at hand are: (i) reach the affected hazardous field (ii) find and get information about victims, and (iii) rescue as many of them as possible. It is possible for robot to reach any hazardous field unlike who have limited mobility in such missions. Nowadays legged and wheeled robots are involved in such mission (Habib, 2000), (Y. Mori, 2005), (Rizo J, 2003), (Y. Baudoin, 1999). In terms of hazardous field navigation for disaster recovery mission, legged robots have advantages over wheeled robots. Wheeled robots are the simplest and cheapest and tracked robots are very good for moving, but not over almost all kinds of terrain. Manned wheeled vehicles (Habib, 2000), (Y. Mori, 2005) or robotic systems (Rizo J, 2003), (Y. Baudoin, 1999), have already been tested. Navigate over obstacles and ditches and even on stairs one of the foremost advantages legged robots hold over their wheeled or tracked counterparts. It shows that legged robots can operate in both even and rough terrain. Some general-purpose robots were tested for this kind of application, nowadays specific prototypes having special features are being built and tested for specific mission. The TITAN VIII walking robot, a four-legged robot was developed as a general-purpose walking robot at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan (Hirose S, 1998). COMET-I maybe the first legged robot purposefully developed for rescue missions. It is a six-legged robot developed at Chiba University, Japan, and incorporates different sensors and location systems (Nonami K, 2000), (Q.J. Huang, 2003). This robot weighs about 120 kg. The Chiba University group has developed the fourth version of this 22