| act— This paper presents design features of a | | | | cameras. Rescue Robots are designed in many ways. |
| rescue robot, named CEO Mission II. Its body is | | | | Their most functions usually are for exploration and |
| designed to be the track wheel type with double front | | | | collecting information of victims in the hazardous |
| flippers for climbing over the collapse and the rough | | | | situation which is too risky to send human inside. Some |
| terrain. With 125 cm. long, 5-joint mechanical arm | | | | rescue robots use their small size features for going |
| installed on the robot body, it is deployed not only for | | | | deep into area. The robot from Tiny Seekers team |
| surveillance from the top view but also easier and | | | | (Japan) is the good example of small size and walking |
| faster access to the victims to get their vital sign. Two | | | | robot which has the good point of going into narrow |
| cameras and sensors for searching vital signs are set | | | | place and overcoming rugged terrain. However the |
| up at the tip of the multi-joint mechanical arm. The third | | | | small size robots will have a problem if they want to |
| camera is at the back of the robot for driving control. | | | | climb over the step that’s higher than their |
| Hardware and software of the system, which controls | | | | height and want to move fast. There are some |
| and monitors the rescue robot, are explained. The | | | | jumping rescue robotswhich try to move over the high |
| control system is used for controlling the robot | | | | obstacles by using a pneumatic cylinder. Many times |
| locomotion, the 5-joint mechanical arm, and for turning | | | | the explorers need to look from top view or look over |
| on/off devices. The monitoring system gathers all | | | | partition for making decision of journey. Such as the |
| information from 7 distance sensors, IR temperature | | | | rescue robot from CEO Mission I Team (Thailand), the |
| sensors, 3 CCD cameras, voice sensor, robot wheels | | | | camera on the top of 125-cm. high mast is used for |
| encoders, yawn/pitch/roll angle sensors, laser range | | | | looking over the 80-cm. high partitions and accurately |
| finder and 8 spare A/D inputs. | | | | marks the locations of victims in the competition arena. |
| All sensors and controlling data are communicated with | | | | In whatever way, the high mast equipment is only |
| a remote control station via IEEE 802.11b Wi-Fi. The | | | | having two degree of freedoms. It can not stretch to |
| audio and video data are compressed and sent via | | | | any desire directions for sensing victim’s vital |
| another IEEE 802.11g Wi-Fi transmitter for getting | | | | sign. So we solve this problem with the design and |
| real-time response. At remote control station site, the | | | | implementation of a rescue robot with five degree of |
| robot locomotion and the mechanical arm are | | | | freedoms mechanical arm which can stretch to 125 |
| controlled by joystick. Moreover, the user-friendly GUI | | | | cm. long. Many sensors can be installed at tip of arm, |
| control program is developed based on the clicking and | | | | for situation surveillance from high level as well as |
| dragging method to easily control the movement of | | | | getting vital sign of victims easier and faster. This |
| the arm. Robot traveling map is plotted from computing | | | | paper focuses on the systems of hardware and |
| the information of wheel encoders and the yawn/pitch | | | | software which control robot locomotion and |
| data. 2D Obstacle map is plotted from data of the | | | | mechanical arm movement. It gives the details to the |
| laser range finder. The concept and design of this | | | | hardware and software of monitoring system as well. |
| robot can be adapted to suit many other applications. | | | | The rest of this paper is structured as follows. Section |
| As the Best Technique awardee from Thailand | | | | two gives an overview of the hardware of the robot. |
| Rescue Robot Championship 2006, all testing results | | | | In section three, the robot mechanical parts are |
| are satisfied | | | | explained. Section four illustrates the sensors equipped |
| I. INTRODUCTION | | | | on the robot. Section five gives the detail of the basic |
| Rescue robot design and implementation is an | | | | software aspects and the higher level software on |
| interesting combination of allowing basic research while | | | | board the robot. The software on the operator station |
| being application oriented. The focus for the rescue | | | | is also presented in this section. Sectionsix is the testing |
| robot application is on difficult terrain and simple | | | | results and discussions. Section seven is the conclusion |
| platforms that mainly act as mobile explorer by | | | | and the future work. |