Static balance for rescue robot navigation: Discretizing rotational motion within random step environment

Abstract

The goal of rescue robotics is to extend the capabilities and to increase the safety of human rescuers. During a rescue mission a mobile agent enters a rescue site and it is manipulated by a human operator from a safe place. Without seeing the robot and the environment, a decision on the path selection is very complicated. Our long term research goal is to provide a kind of automatic "pilot system" to propose an operator a good direction to traverse the environment, taking into an account the robot's static and dynamic properties. To find a good path we need a special path search algorithm on debris and a proper definition of a search tree, which can ensure smooth exploration. In this paper we present our results in estimation of the transition possibilities between two consecutive states, connected with a rotation step. Exhaustive simulations were used to analyze data and to remove unsuitable directions of the search from the search tree. Combining together the results of this paper and our previous results on a translation step and estimation of losing balance on purpose within Random Step Environment, we can now build a search tree and continue toward the path planning process. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.