After the success of the Rescue Project (http://rescue.isr.ist.utl.pt/), the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST: a Portuguese University)
aims to further develop their investigation on Search and Rescue (SaR) robots. To achieve this, a brand new project is being developed in a partnership led by an innovative robotics Portuguese company: IdMind – Engenharia de Sistemas, Lda.
The project goal is to build a Search and Rescue (SaR) robot, conceived to operate in environments hostile to human presence (or otherwise not reachable). Collapsed buildings are a perfect example on where the robot should operate.
The RAPOSA name is an acronym for “Robot Semi-Autónomo para Operações de Salvamento” which means “Semi Autonomous Robot for Rescue Operations”. It’s a cool name as it means fox, a good concept for our robot: both agile and small sized.
This first prototype will be equipped for search operations only, in such a way that a remote operator can detect survivors and estimate the environment conditions.
With this goal it will feature a set of adequate sensors. It will be semi-autonomous, in a sense that it will be optimized to keep all low level controls out of the operator concern, thus allowing him to focus on finding victims, rather than on the quirks of driving the robot.
This project is an R&D consortium, with a partnership of the following members:
- IdMind: is the project leader, and will have an active participation in all its stages:
- At the specification stage it will receive input from the project partners,
such as innovative scientific and technological data from IST, appropriate sensors required from RSBL and experience reports from USF-PRL;
- The robot' effective construction will also be supervised and/or executed at IdMind.
A contracted company will build the external robot chassis, and an IST graduated student with a scholarship will develop the software.
IdMind will also value input from IST and RSBL to correct and improve the developed prototype.
- Instituto Superior Técnico:
- It is the final robot' owner. It will participate actively providing scientific support, and software development;
- It will provide the Robot prototype for tests, in RSBL training camps, when necessary, supporting all the process;
- It was the middle institution between USF and the other partners in order to arrange all the details concerning the visit performed to Perceptual Robotics Laboratory, November 2003.
- Regimento de Sapadores Bombeiros de Lisboa (Lisbon Firefighters):
- This partner will provide information concerning the type of sensors appropriated for search and rescue operations;
- Their school has a test camp simulating a collapsed structure that will be adequate for testing the robot on its construction final stage;
- It will be the final user of the robot that will be made available always that it proves necessary by IST.
- University of South Florida - Perceptual Robotics Laboratory:
- The partner USF-PRL will provide the field experience in operations using tele-operated robots, such as the World Trade Center Search
and Rescue operations. Their work in this area has some years now, and they have been working along with firefighters and
other search and rescue teams. This experience has allowed them to even build their own SaR robots;
- A visit to the Perceptual Robotics Laboratory was accomplished last November, and its goals were:
- Attend (conventional) search and rescue courses;
- Exchange of practical experience in robotics search and rescue field;
- Open laboratory and field experiments, allowing direct use and test of their (SaR) robots.
The RAPOSA project is an R&D project, it is funded by the POSI program
(medida 1.3 - "Investigação em Consórcio") through the FEDER program and the Portuguese Budget,
and managed by ADI (The Innovation Agency).