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A team of mechanical engineering students at Warwick University is developing a robot which will take part in this year's World RoboCup Rescue Championships.
Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) students are constructing a search and rescue robot which is capable of autonomously navigating a simulated collapsed building and locating and asssisting victims.
The six Warwick Mobile Robotics (WMR) team members will compete with robotics teams from over 40 counties, and as the only UK entry the students hope their robot will be the one to beat.
The World RoboCup Rescue Championships promote research and development into physical robotic agents for disaster search and rescue and increase awareness of the challenges involved. The event also aims to provide objective evaluation of robotic implementations in representative environments and promote collaboration between researchers.
The teams are given a scenario, such as a devastated building, and their robot has to scout out the area and find as many victims as possible. The robots have to find the targets, determine their situation, state and location and then report back their findings. Points are scored through victim identification using visual, thermal and audio. The robots have just 20 minutes to complete their mission.
The Warwick team's robot has been tested in Coventry at Northrop Grumman (Remotec UK‘s training ground for remote control miliary robots) where it performed well in the majority of tests for mobility, manipulation and manoeuvrability. The most significant improvement on last year's design was the developed GUI, which allowed the blind tasks (where the operator was in a remote location to the testing area) to be completed quickly and more easily.
Improvements made to the 2012 robot:
- The new chassis is 5 times thicker than the old design, however, using aluminium 6082-T6 (heat treated and aged) has reduced the overall weight by 35% and increased strength significantly
- The team improved the flipper clamps design by using a higher tensile strength material and eliminating stress raising geometry
- The head circuit board has been improved to include a new microcontroller and a CO2 filter to remove high frequency noise
- The head itself has been redesigned to reduce weight (approx. 600g) by using a 3D printed shell and removing unnecessary devices. The new design also allows for quick and easy access to key components/electronics
- 3D representation has been implemented which will provide feedback information to the driver such as the current position of the robot arm, flippers, Centre of Mass and the robot’s current orientation in space
- Inverse kinematics have been introduced to allow the user to ‘fly’ the head – where the movement of the arm is based upon where the head is looking
- A warning system is now in place to provide collision detection, toppling prevention and notify of device errors
- The LIDAR sensor is now used to help create a map of the robot’s surroundings, which could be used by emergency responders to locate victims marked on the map by the robot
- A more compact power board has been created, that uses high reliability Harwin connectors and clearly labels the available voltages and polarities to make connecting devices simple.
- The power supplies have also been upgraded to ensure reliability under heavy load
- A new battery management circuit has been designed which will protect against both over- and under-voltage, short-circuit and excessive discharge current. The circuit also includes a fuel-gauge that tells the robot how much charge remains in the battery
- A new battery pack has been designed which allows batteries to be easily inserted and removed from the robot. Batteries are now located at the front of the robot rather than the sides, allowing it to safely traverse puddles and loose dirt.
The team use Maxon products, including a dexterous arm, high powered RE30 DC motors and a GP32 gearhead, in their robot. Company's senior sales engineer, Paul Williams, has been on hand to advise the students and offer expertise.
WMR team member, Rachele Williams said: “We chose to use Maxon products for their highly recognised reliability, which is important in a system such as our search and rescue robot.
"We are really looking forward to taking part in the competition and competing against other world-class search and rescue robotics teams. We've worked really hard and so it would be great to win, but however we perform - the experience will be hugely valuable to the progression of the Warwick Mobile Robotics robot.”
The contest will be held on 24 - 30 June 2013 in Eindhoven.
The team is sponsored by the IMechE and Maxon Motor UK.