Snake-Like Robot to Aid Search and Rescue Operations

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Search and rescue operations in disaster-stricken areas often lack information about the terrain and the actual situation. A team of researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), Massachusetts, has received a three-year, $400,000 award contract from the National Science Foundation to create an autonomous snake-like robot that can navigate more easily through the rubble and rough terrain left in the aftermath of a disaster, while sending images and information to search-and-rescue teams.

“The goal of the project is to have a robot with the autonomy to navigate through its environment without close supervision,” said Jie Fu, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and the co-principal investigator on the project. Cagdas Onal, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and Fu’s co-principal investigator on the project, told roboticstommorrow.com there are three main targets to the research: mobility, low-level motion-control algorithms based on embedded sensory feedback, and high-level planning algorithms.

The scientists are pushing ahead in all three areas to create “soft” robots, constructed from silicone rubber. Each module, or segment, of this soft robotic body is able to generate its own motion. Soft robots represent a significant advancement over traditional hard ones which might break or cause damage if they tried to push off a wall or object. Soft robots can use their components differently. Because their bodies don’t have discrete joints, they can bend continuously, making it much easier to gently negotiate tight corners.

Fu noted that the research project is unique because of the team’s work on the high-level, learning-based control design. “If I put the robot in the sand and then on gravel, it would exhibit different behaviors,” explained Fu. “On the higher level we can introduce learning-based mechanisms so the robot will learn the best way to move based on the environment it’s in and based on what it needs to achieve in that environment.”

The robot also should be able to learn which body movements—wrapping around or pressing against obstacles to propel itself, for example—work best in particular situations, according to Onal. So far, the scientists have created a prototype of their robot and equipped it with custom-built deformation sensors. Onal said this is the first soft robot that uses this kind of sensors to perform not only feedback control of its motion but also plan this motion in a scalable and efficient manner to perform tasks autonomously.

To an article about another snake robot technology