Development of an autonomous rescue robot: Achievement of obstacle avoidance and stair descent using IMU controls

Abstract

We developed a search-and-rescue robot to locate people in buildings following an earthquake disaster. In such an environment, there may be obstacles such as slopes, stairs, and rubble; however, with remote control systems, there can be a delay in obtaining an image due to the wireless communications system, which makes maneuvering the robot challenging. In the previous report, we achieved autonomous climbing for the up slope and stairs. But, autonomous descending was not yet achieved. Here, we constructed an autonomous movement system which using the acceleration sensor feedback control for the down slope and stairs. Finally, we report the experimental research results.