IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2018 - 12

shows some of the photographs taken during the inspection. Among the normal households features (i.e., doors,
tables, and so on), the main characteristics of a postearthquake scenario are debris on the ground, collapsed furniture limiting accessibility to the rooms, and damages to the
building structure.
The combined information provided by the filled-out form
and the inspection of the interior of the house was used to define
the hardware specifications of the robotic platform, which are
provided in Table 1. The requirements are divided into five

domains, which define the specifications of the different
subsystems that constitute our robotic platform: perception,
manipulation, mobility, autonomy, and user interface for teleoperation. Specifications contained in Table 1 represent the input
for the following sections where the implementation of the setup
is discussed.
Robotic Platform Setup
The mission field was organized in three areas: 1) the remote
pilot station [shown in Figure 4(e)], 2) the outside zone

Table 1. Hardware requirements and specifications for remote operations in disaster scenarios.
Tasks and Requirements

Domain

System Specifications

Implementation

Mapping and measuring, to extract
visual data in different conditions

Perception

Redundant vision sensors

MultiSense SL (rotating two-dimensional lidar, stereo camera, and RGB video)
ZED stereo camera

Possibility to operate during night
or with no light sources

Lighting systems

4× visible light-emitting diodes, integrated in the MultiSense SL

Possibility to scan a room without
moving or reorienting the robot
base

Pan-and-tilt rotation of cameras and sensors

Two degrees of freedom (2 DoF)
neck (pitch and yaw) and 1 DoF waist
(yaw)

Grasping tool for a wide range
of objects

Underactuated compliant hand

Manipulator arm

Dual arm system (7 DoF each)

Obstacle and path clearance

Knowledge of the forces exchanged with the environment

Force/torque sensors at the endeffectors

Safe contacts and interactions

Tactile sensing

Under development

Capability to survive strong
interaction with the environment

Physical sturdiness

Compliance at the joint level

Limited footprint

Footprint 810 × 1,040 mm

The building structure can be
compromised by vibrations

Limited vibration emissions

Electrical actuation

Indoor operations

Limited pollutant emissions

High stability over small-sized
debris

Intrinsically stable mobile
base

Four-wheel mobile base

Untethered communication

Indoor: wireless communication
(wireless local area network)

Capability of grasping objects with
different characteristics (shape,
weight, stiffness, and so forth)

Manipulation

Navigation in confined spaces, such
as houses, offices, and shops

Remote deployment inside
damaged building

Mobility

Autonomy

Operative range within 100 m
from the pilot station

Outdoor: wired connection to field
routers (Ethernet)

Power autonomy > 1 h
First-person user experience

User interface

Onboard battery

Custom lithium-ion battery

Immersive 3-D stereoscopic
visual feedback

Oculus Rift

Low latency
Pilot motion capture
Operator comfort for extended
missions

Wearable and portable device
Lightweight and highly integrated
Tactile rendering

12

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IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2018

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