DDT_Project_on_Rescue_Robots_and_Systems

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SICE-ICASE International Joint Conference 2006
Oct. 18-2 1, 2006 in Bexco, Busan, Korea
DDT Project on Rescue Robots and Systems
Satoshi Tadokoro1
1Tohoku University / International Rescue System Institute
(Tel: +81-22-795-7022; E-mail: tadokorogrm.is.tohoku.ac.jp)
Abstract: This paper introduces an overview of the MEXT DDT Project focusing on large-scale urban earthquakes,
which are the most important disaster to be prepared for in Japan. Various rescue robots and systems to minimize the
damage after incidences are being developed by 4 mission units: aero robots, on-rubble/underground robots, in-rubble
robots, and equipment for social infrastructure. Many systems such as Soryu IV, HERIOS VIII and Rescue
Communicator are being produced by intensive collaboration of university/corporation researchers nationwide, and are
being tested by IRS-U, a volunteer group of firefighters to make them actually used in disaster in the future.
Keywords: Rescue robot, rescue systems, disaster response
1. URBAN EARTHQUAKE DISASTER
Urban earthquakes are one of the most important disasters
in Japan. The Japanese archipelago is situated at an
intersection of Pacific, Philippine Sea, Eurasia and North
America Plates, which are continuously sliding each other.
This crustal movement frequently causes huge earthquakes in
this area such as Nankai, Tonankai, and Tokai Earthquakes.
Probabilities that these earthquakes occur in 30 years is
50-60%, and its predicted magnitude will be more than 8.4. In
addition, the land of Japan has many faults, which slide
periodically. They sometimes cause serious damage in urban
area, such as in the case of Kobe Earthquake. The former
usually happen in ocean and affect wide area. On the other
hand, the latter cause intensive damage even if its magnitude is
not large.
The damage by these incidents is estimated to be
catastrophic. Table 1 shows predicted human damage when
Nankai and Tonankai earthquake simultaneously happen,
which was a case in history [1]. The area ofdamage is a center
of commercial and industrial activities in Japan, and the
earthquake might completely destroy Japan's economy.
Therefore, preparation and countermeasure against possible
earthquakes are considered to be a top priority for this country.
2. DDT PROJECT
On the basis of this background situation of Japan,
Ministry of Education, Sports, Culture, Science and
Technology (MEXT) has launched a national project, Special
Project for Earthquake Disaster Mitigation in Urban Areas, in
2002 as a five year project. It consists of various research
fields related to earthquake disaster mitigation. A part of this
project aims at development of advanced robots and
information systems for disaster response, which is III.
Advanced Disaster Management System, 4. Development of
Advanced Robots and Information Systems for Disaster
Response (PI: Satoshi Tadokoro, Tohoku U. and IRS). We
will call it DDT Project in this paper [2-3].
The theme ofDDT Project is urban search in confined space.
It develops robots and systems for reconnaissance of human
bodies, structural damage and environmental conditions to
assist responders. Aero robots, jumping robots, serpentine
robots, crawler/wheel robots, distributed sensors, USAR tools,
test fields, dummy, evaluation metrics, advanced human
interface, and communication networks are being developed
by 4 mission units consisting ofmore than 100 professors and
researchers. They focus on search over/on/in rubble piles,
reconnaissance in underground/high structures, and
information collection in urban environments
Figure 1 shows a roadmap of this project. Because many
possible technologies had not been applied well to this domain,
this project started by testing and enhancement of existing
technologies, especially for the first three years. And then,
practical products are being developed in the last three years of
the integration stage. In order to test its research products,
Kobe and Kawasaki Laboratories were established in
International Rescue System Institute (IRS) which manages
the whole project. Especially, Kobe Laboratory has Collapsed
House Simulation Facility where various experiments are
performed in/on rubble piles under realistic situations as
shown in Fig. 2.
3. FOUR MISSION UNITS
The following four mission units (MU) were organized as
research groups. The objective of research of each MU is as
follows.
1) Aero robots MU
- Helicopters, air ships, balloons, etc.
- Autonomous global surveillance (< some km) right after
an incidence in 30 minutes.
- Local surveillance (< 200 m) for victim search and ground
support.
2) On-rubble/underground robots MU
- Crawler-type, wheel-type, jumping-type, etc.
- Local information collection (< 50 m) for victim search
and environmental examination from the surface of rubble
piles.
- Information collection in underground structures (< 200
m) for victim search and environmental examination.
3) In-rubble robots MU
89-950038-5-5 98560/06/$10 © 2006 ICASE
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- Serpentine-type, crawler-type, distributed sensors, etc.
- Local information collection (< 30 m) for victim search
and environmental examination from the inside of rubble
piles.
- Advanced rescue tools and systems for fire-fighter parties.
4) Infrastructure MU
- RF ID tags, micro servers, etc.
- Global information collection (> 10 km) using RF ID tags,
micro servers, ad-hoc networks, airships, home facilities,
etc.
- Communication protocol, ad hoc networks, data structure,
etc. for information integration.
Figure 3 shows a scenario of disaster response using
products of this research. Before an incidence, infrastructure
using home network is continuously monitoring necessary
information for rescue. Right after the incidence, collected
information is transferred to responding organizations during
short lag time (some seconds) after alarm of the incidence by
the primary wave before the secondary wave of major shake
on the basis of real-time seismic information system [4]. The
intelligent helicopters autonomously fly to gather information
from sky within 30 minutes. Disaster managers make decision
using those data, and responders turn out to the disaster sites
with the other robots and systems including the in-rubble, the
on-rubble and the air systems.
4. INFORMATION GATHERING IN RUBBLE
PILES
In current operation of responders, optical fiber scopes and
search cams are intensively used as high-tech tools for urban
search and rescue. Interview with responders clarified that
they have the following requirements of improvement.
1) It is desirable to have longer reachable distance, if possible
more than 5 m. Capability of upward insertion and
avoidance/ climbing up obstacles in rubble piles is expected.
Robots can satisfy these requirements by their mobility.
2) More field of view, 3D information, environmental
measurement for hazardous materials (Hazmat), and
intelligent support for human recognition are desirable.
Robots can have multiple cameras, 3D measurement devices,
various sensors and information processing capability for
these purposes. Intelligent human interface is also effective.
Therefore, robotic systems can be good solutions to improve
performance of tools for responders.
IRS Soryu shown in Fig. 4 is a serpentine-type robot to
intrude into narrow space of rubble piles developed by Shigeo
Hirose (Tokyo Institute of Technology and IRS). Its size is
1,210 mm long, 122 mm high and 145 mm wide, and the
weight is 10 kg. Typical gap size in Kobe Earthquake was 300
x 150 mm, and the size of IRS Soryu is slightly too high. The
radius of turning is 410 mm, the trench width of crossing is
590 mm, the height of avoidable cave is 264 mm, the step
height of ascending is 483 mm, and the maximum speed is 370
mm/s. Grounding stability ofthe crawlers, anti-rolling margin,
water proof and dust control were improved from Soryu III [5],
aprevious version of serpentine Hirose's robot series. A CCD
camera of perspective view for its navigation, a camera of the
front view, an infrared camera (FLIR), two-way audio, and gas
sensors for environmental check are installed in its body.
Rotation sensors of crawlers, rotation angle sensors for each
joint, inclination sensors for each body, etc. are used for
internal sensing. It has tether for the best quality of video
image, and safety from lost in rubble piles. Experiments at a
half-collapsed house in Niigata-Chuetsu Earthquake, at a
training site of FEMA Nevada TF1, at the Collapsed Hose
Simulation Facility in Kobe as shown in Fig. 4 (b) and (c)
demonstrated its potential of mobility.
Soryu IV is being developed as an improved version of IRS
Soryu by cooperation ofmany researchers in the in-rubble MU.
It has higher specification of water/dust proof, better mobility
including pivot turn, and a new joint mechanism avoiding
stuck as its mechanical design (by Arai and Hirose, Tokyo
Institute of Technology). A number of small-size cameras [6]
are being installed for panoramic view with less dead angles,
3D distance measurement of surrounding space, and human
operator support (by Ohno and Tadokoro, Tohoku University).
A flexible sensor tube (FST) is also being installed for 3D
position sensing in rubble pile (by Osuka, Kobe University).
A new type of laser range finder [7] is planned to be installed
(by Kurisu, Tokyo Denki University and Yokokoji, Kyoto
University). All the information collected by Soryu IV is
transferred by Mitigation Information Sharing Protocol
(MISP) [8] to DaRuMa geographic information database for
effective use and integration of gathered data (by Noda, AIST,
Meguro, Waseda University and Hada, Riken). This is a
typical way of research in DDT Project. Each researcher
contributes by his/her own expertise.
An active motion fiber scope camera of 5 m long and
diameter 30 mm was developed as shown in Fig. 5 by
Tadokoro (Tohoku University) [9]. A cilia vibration drive
actuation mechanism was applied to realize its compact
motion capability.
In addition, a penetrating jack, Baribari (by Tsukagoshi),
another serpentine robot, MOIRA [10] (by Osuka), a mobile
jack [11] (by Suzumori), a multi-sensor head (by Tsubouchi),
etc. were developed in this project.
5. INFORMATION GATHERING BY UGVS
In urban earthquake disasters, rather large space remains in
collapsed structures, especially in underground structures.
Responders are at risk because such half destroyed buildings
are unstable so that aftershock easily causes complete collapse.
Gas and lack of oxygen are serious problem for human in
addition to Hazmat. In order to minimize the risk and possible
secondary damage, robots and systems are expected to replace
human in dangerous area.
Various types of UGVs such as ACROS (by Tsubouchi),
FUMA [12] (by Matsuno), Alibaba (by Ohno and Tadokoro),
Hibiscus (by Koyanagi), and HELIOS VIII (by Hirose for its
mechanism) were developed.
A virtual bird-eye-view human interface was developed by
Shiroma and Matsuno (Univ. of Electro-communications) as
shown in Fig. 6 [13]. It is well-known that bird-eye camera is
effective for tele-operation of mobile vehicles because
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surrounding situations are easily recognized and naturally
predicted by operators. However, robots for entering narrow
space cannot have long arm for real bird-eye cameras. Even if
possible, they sometimes make the system lose the weight
balance to spoil its mobility in rough terrain. A virtual
bird-eye view is created combining past camera image and
computer graphics of the robot body on the basis of
measured/estimated robot motion.
3D maps are generated based on SLAM by Ohno and
Tadokoro as shown in Fig. 7 [14-15].
HELIOS VIII are being developed aiming hyper mobility
using two crawler bodies connected by an arm. Various
technologies including the virtual bird-eye view, the 3D
mapping, MISP protocol [8], and DaRuMa GIS introduced
above are installed in its body. The integrated system as a
result of research collaboration in IRS should have a good
performance of search in rough terrain and underground
structures.
6. INFORMATION GATHERING FROM SKY
Aero vehicles are effective for global information gathering
and simultaneous monitoring by the bird-eye view. Small-size
unmanned helicopters, airships and balloons were developed
in the DDT Project.
The unmanned helicopter by Nakanishi (Kyoto University)
is called Aero Robot [16]. It has a PTZ camera and a laser
profiler to collect ground image and shape information semi-
autonomously. Its intelligent human interface enables
operators to control the robot manually to check points of
interest in detail.
Infoballoon by Onosato (Hokkaido University) was
developed for fixed-point observation of critical points of
disaster and wireless connection for human responders and
robots as shown in Fig. 8. Takemura and Tadokoro (IRS)
proposed a control scheme of three tethers for stabilizing a
balloon against wind [ 17].
7. SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE FOR
INFORMATION GATHERING
Rescue Communicator [18] was developed by Hada and
Asama (Riken) as shown in Fig. 9. It has a function of
network router for data hub of information from home
appliances in a house in addition to that of voice
communication for search (calling and listening) as a
distributed sensor. Information of human existence and
position is transferred to responders in case of disaster using
the MISP protocol.
8. DEMONSTRATION AND TRAINING
2006 is the final year ofthe research period ofDDT Project.
Many experimental demonstration events in cooperation with
responders are scheduled to evaluate its research results.
IRS-Unit was organized by Makabe (Odawara FD) and
volunteer firefighters. They have periodically tested the
robots, and have made training assuming scenario of
application to realistic disaster situations. Figure 10 shows a
scene of training at Tachikawa training site of Tokyo FD
Hyper Rescue, where the in-rubble robots and systems were
tested.
9. CONCLUSIONS
This paper introduced an overview ofthe DDT Project. The
author expects many of the results of this project will
contribute to mitigate damage of disaster near future.
The author really appreciates the contributions of
collaborating researchers nationwide, the staffs of IRS, the
members of IRS-U and advisers from worldwide, especially
the effort of the mission unit leaders.
REFERENCES
[1] Japan Cabinet Office, Central Disaster Prevention Committee,
2003.
[2] Reports of MEXT Special Project for Earthquake Disaster
Mitigation in Urban Areas (DDT Project), III. Advanced Disaster
Management System, 4. Development of Advanced Robots and
Information Systems for Disaster Response, International Rescue
System Institute, National Research Institute for Earth Science and
Disaster Prevention, Japan Ministry of Education, Sports, Culture,
Science and Technology, 2003-2006.
[3] Special Issue on Special Project for Earthquake Disaster
Mitigation in Urban Areas (DDT Project), J. of Robotics Society of
Japan, 2004.
[4] Y. Fujinawa, et al., Multiple applications of real-time seismic
information, XXIII General Assembly of the International Union of
Geophysics and Geodesy (IUGG2003), 2003.
[5] M. Arai, T. Takayama, S. Hirose, Development of Souryu-III:
connecte crawler vehicle for inspection inside narrow and winding
spaces, Proc. IROS 2004, 2004.
[6] S. Makita, T. Kishima, M. Minobe, S. Tadokoro, Development of
compound eye camera system for searching in rubble, Proc. IROS
2004, 2004.
[7] M. Kurisu, Y. Yokokohji, Y. Shiokawa, T. Samejima,
Development of a laser range finder for 3D map-building in rubble,
Proc. IROS 2004, 2004.
[8] I. Noda, Communication protocol and data format for GIS
integration, Proc. 2nd Intl. Conf. on Ubiquitous Robots and Ambient
Intelligence, 2005.
[9] K. Isaki, A. Niitsuma, M. Konyo, F. Takemura,S. Tadokoro,
Development of an Active Flexible Cable Driven by Ciliary
Vibration Mechanism, Proc. Actuator 2006, A6.6, pp.219-222, 2006.
[10] R. Haraguchi, K. Osuka, S. Makita, S. Tadokoro, The
development of the mobile inspection robot for rescue activity,
MOIRA2, Proc. ICAR05, pp. 498-505, 2005.
[11] J. Tanaka, K. Suzumori, M. Takata, T. Kanda, M. Mori, A
mobile jack robot for rescue operation, IEEE Intl. Workshop on
Safety, Security and Rescue Robotics (SSRR2005), pp. 99-104,
2005.
[12] YH. Chiu, N. Shiroma, H. Igarashi, N. Sato, M. Inami, F.
Matsuno, FUMA: environment information gathering wheeled rescue
robot with one-DOF arm, Proc. IEEE Intl. Workshop on Safety,
Security and Rescue Robotics (SSRR 2005), 2005
[13] M. Sugimoto, G. Kagotani, H. Nii, N. Shiroma, M. Inami, F.
Matsuno, Time follower's vision: a tele-operation interface with past
images, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, Jan./Feb. Issue,
pp. 54-63, 2005.
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[14] K. Ohno, S. Tadokoro, Dense 3D map building based on LRF
data and color image fusion, Proc. IROS 2005, pp. 1774-1779, 2005.
[15] K. Ohno, M. Nomura, S. Tadokoro, Real-time robot trajectory
estimation and 3D map construction using 3D camera, Proc. IROS
2006, 2006 (to appear).
[16] H. Nakanishi, K. Inoue, A study on intelligent aero-robot for
disaster response, Progress in Safety Science and ITechnology, 4-B3,
pp.17130-17134, 2005.
[17] Fumiaki Takemura, Kiyoshi Maeda, Satoshi Tadokoro, Attitude
Stability of a Cable Driven Balloon Robot, Proc. IEEE/RSJ
International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems
(IR0S2006), 2006
[18] K. Kawabata, Y. Hada, H. Kaetsu, H. Asama, Ubiquitous victim
search device: intelligent data carrier for rescue, Proc. ICRA2006,
2006.
Table 1 Estimate of human damage when Nankai Earthquake and Tonankai Earthquake simultaneously occur.
Number of victims
Item lime of incidence 5 am Noon 18 PM
Shake 6,000 2,900 4,000
Tsunami Well aware of evacuation 3,300 2,200 2,300
Poor aware of evacuation 8,600 4,100 5,000
Ded
Slope collapse 2,100 1,100 1,300
Ded Fire Wind: 3 m/s 100 60 900
Wind: 15 m/s 500 200 2,200
Large-scale landslide Can be very large depending on the place
Total Wind: 3 m/s 12,100 - 17,400 6,300 - 8,100 8,500 - 11,200
Wind: 15 m/s 12,500 - 17,800 6,400 - 8,200 9,800 - 12,500
Seriously injured in total 20,400 16,100 17,300
Need rescue in total 40,400 22,400 26,900
Japan-Wide Collaboration
* 47 R&D Themes (Half: Public Offer)
* Number of Professors > 100
t io l Poy
p eP ndut ti e gsys tems o
iable o a io s T
*Deployment: Prepare everything for
deployment including organization
Figure 1. Roadmap of DDT Project.
Figure 2. Collapsed House Simulation Facility in Kobe Laboratory, IRS. Figure 5. An active fiber scope camera
by Satoshi Tadokoro (Tohoku Univ. and IRS).
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GeographicalA
Location Aero Aero (Airship, Balloon)
Aero ~~~Helicopterl) Lon"' -term InmformationmColle................ tiornfromSkyAero
; | ~On-Rubble Robots .............
;Rapid 11 Information} from Street anld or} Rubble
.. Emerger InlfGrmation} from Unldergrournd & H igh Bldg.Ground lnfra- .. forma ii - Z Z ln-RRobots andstructure Sollectio
(home O nrmation CollectionEalihmetof o iRSnbble Piles
Underground network) lIAdVanced Tools for Rescue.
Underground tw~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~Rot
Advanicem || |Cnfrastructure Micro-svers oRFID Tags
HeadquGlobal I WformatiodCollect-bre Rec
Robots and Collection... .._...| | .._
Qys.emC< _ 2\1SII/ h r 3hrs I7,2*1frs
Simulation/ L slIIIIlEIrF. .....
S ..RRealtime Damage EstimationF3repared o
umn/Counter.,........ Rcisio. .........................
/ easur..e ye
/ On-Site Information Collectivon .Peeto mrec rnpr
Solztion lnfrastructure Establishment ....of of Secondary Route
, ~~~(Ubiquitous Devices) Countermeasures Disaster Logistics
Global Information Collectionl Headquarters Wide-Area Lifeline Recovery
Rescue Brigade
Figure 3. Scenario of deployment.
(a) At a half-collapsed house in Niigata-Chuetsu EQ. (b) At Collapsed House Simulation Facility. (c) At aFEMA Nevada TF1 training site
Figure 4 A serpentine robot IRS Soryu by Shigeo Hirose (Tokyo Inst. Tech. and IRS).
(a) Real bird-eye view of robot motion (b) Virtual bird-eye view using past image
Figure 6. Virtual bird-eye-view human interface by Naoji Shiroma (IRS) and Fumitoshi Matsuno (Univ. of Electro-communications)
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(a) 3D map taken by scanned Leute sensor (b) 3D map taken by 2 URG sensors (c) 3D map taken by 2 URG sensors with texture
Figure 7. 3D maps using SLAM by Kazunori Ohno and Satoshi Tadokoro (Tohoku Univ.)
(b) Image taken from sky
Figure 8. Infoballoon by Masahiko Onosato (Hokkaido Univ.)
(c) Flow analysis
Figure 9. Rescue Communicator by Yasushi Hada and Hajime Asama (Riken)
(a) IRS-U in action. (b) Measurement of rubble pile shape by multi sensor head by Tsubouchi. (c) Search using IRS Soryu.
Figure 10. Training of IRS-Unit by Kenichi Makabe (Odawara FD)
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(a) Infoballoon
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