Camera Arm System for Disaster Response Robots (2nd Report: A Collision Protection Mechanism for Real-world Missions)

Abstract

A collision protection mechanism, newly developed for a camera arm system of disaster response robots, is discussed. The arm system is mounted on remotely operated information-gathering robots that work at disaster site. The primary purpose of the system is to enhance investigating performance and to add light-work executing ability such as door opening to the previously developed robot, which has been used at the Fukushima nuclear accident. High mechanical robustness and user friendly control interfaces are inevitably required for the system to allow operations at inaccessible locations by remote control. After necessary specifications and hardware configurations are discussed, a collision protection mechanism equipped at joints of the camera arm system is explained in detail. Evaluation experiments of the arm system mounted on a newly developed crawler type robot “Sakura II” are also described.