Estimation of center of gravity for withdrawal works of unknown indefinite shape rubbles for rescue robots

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to propose a method to decide a position to grasp on rubbles in order not to break down rubbles for withdrawal tasks for rescue robots. A robot can lift up a rubble with a minimum power when the robot hand grasps the center of gravity of the rubble. Recently, rescue robots are needed to find and help victims under broken houses. In many kinds of rescue robots, we try to develop a rubble withdrawal rescue robot in order to remove rubble and rescue victims after a search process. Then we aim to build an algorithm to estimate characteristics of dynamics of rubbles and decide positions to grasp on rubbles with camera images and force sensors attached on fingertips of the robot hand. In this paper, we propose a method to estimate the center of gravity of rubbles using force sensors on the hand and camera images with the Snake, when the robot grasps and lifts up the rubble.