Safe and Effective CBRNe Response with semiautonomous HEterogeneous RObotic System
The dynamic and unpredictable nature of the world we live in makes it difficult to design a single, fully autonomous robot that can be deployed outside of structured industrial environments. This is all the more obvious in emergency response situations, where often enough, even the highly trained human operatives find it hard to efficiently adapt to all the circumstances and unpredictable events that can arise.
The use of robots in Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive (CBRNe) incident response is a promising area of research. Robots can be used to perform tasks that are too dangerous or difficult for humans, such as detecting and identifying hazardous materials, decontaminating people and equipment, and providing medical care. We propose building a Human-in-the-loop HEterogeneous Robotic system (HERO) capable of responding to CBRNe incidents.
Project name:
Safe and Effective CBRNe Response with semiautonomous HEterogeneous RObotic System
Project acronym:
CBRNe HERO
Funding:
NPOO.C3.2.R3-I1.04.0075
Total budget:
€1,249,315.97
Duration:
29/12/2023 – 28/06/2026
Coordinator:
University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing
Partners:
DOK-ING
Boosting robotic capabilities to withstand the extreme conditions of CBRNe incidents
Hazardous CBRNe environmental conditions pose a significant challenge to unmanned systems. They include extreme temperatures, open fire, explosions, fragment projectiles, potential structural collapse, as well as lack of oxygen, high concentrations of toxic industrial materials, and nuclear and radiological radiation. DOK-ING is leading the way in designing, building and reinforcing HERO robotic system.
Extending sensing and cognitive capabilities of the proposed robotic system
Situational awareness for robots comes from fusing the information from a variety of sensors. Our system will be equipped with carefully calibrated sensors fusing various physical, chemical and biological information. This type of fusion will extend the sensing capabilities and provide situational awareness to the HERO system.
Human-in-the-loop control under intermittent communication
In situations like CBRNe disasters, it is impossible to expect the autonomous system to execute the mission alone, without the help of human operators. If the system and the operator are to work together, they must share the situation awareness. This becomes increasingly challenging under intermittent communication with limited data transfer capabilities. To tacle this LARICS will develop a decentralized solution for heterogeneous multi-agent HERO systems.
Develop standard operating procedures (SOPs)
SOPs should cover all aspects of the system’s operation, from deployment to recovery. The operators must be familiar with the system’s capabilities and limitations, as well as the SOPs for its operation. The training should be comprehensive and should include both theoretical and practical exercises. For example, the operators of a robot that is being deployed to search for survivors in a collapsed building would need to be trained on how to operate the robot, how to interpret the robot’s sensors, and how to respond to different scenarios.
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