Robots Operating In Hazardous Environments

Robots are used in industry, rescue missions, military operations, and subwater missions. Their use in hazardous environments is crucial in terms of occupational safety of workers and the health of rescue and military operations. This book presents several hazardous environment operations and safe operations of robots interacting with people in the context of occupational health and safety.

Robots are used in industry, rescue missions, military operations, and subwater missions. Their use in hazardous environments is crucial in terms of occupational safety of workers and the health of rescue and military operations. This book presents several hazardous environment operations and safe operations of robots interacting with people in the context of occupational health and safety.

The first in a series, this book reports on progress in the use of robots and telerobots in hazardous environments. Topics include sensing and sensory fusion, control, intelligence, hot cells applications, mobile robots and environmentally conscious manufacturing.

There have been major recent advances in robotic systems that can replace humans in undertaking hazardous activities in demanding or dangerous environments. Published in association with the CLAWAR (Climbing and Walking Robots and Associated Technologies Association) (www.clawar.org), this important book reviews the development of robotic systems for de-mining and other risky activities such as fire-fighting. Part one provides an overview of the use of robots for humanitarian de-mining work. Part two discusses the development of sensors for mine detection whilst Part thee reviews developments in both teleoperated and autonomous robots. Building on the latter, Part four concentrates on robot autonomous navigation. The final part of the book reviews research on multi-agent-systems (MAS) and the multi-robotics-systems (MRS), promising tools that take into account modular design of mobile robots and the use of several robots in multi-task missions. With its distinguished editors and international team of contributors, Using robots in hazardous environments: landmine detection, de-mining and other applications is a standard reference for all those researching the use of robots in hazardous environments as well as government and other agencies wishing to use robots for dangerous tasks such as landmine detection and disposal. Reviews the development of robotic systems for de-mining and other risky activities Discusses the development and applications of sensors for mine detection using different robotic systems Examines research on multi-agent-systems and multi-robotics systems

This catalog, containing specification sheets and photos, provides utility engineers with a concise database on these versatile devices.

Intelligent robotics has become the focus of extensive research activity. This effort has been motivated by the wide variety of applications that can benefit from the developments. These applications often involve mobile robots, multiple robots working and interacting in the same work area, and operations in hazardous environments like nuclear power plants. Applications in the consumer and service sectors are also attracting interest. These applications have highlighted the importance of performance, safety, reliability, and fault tolerance. This volume is a selection of papers from a NATO Advanced Study Institute held in July 1989 with a focus on active perception and robot vision. The papers deal with such issues as motion understanding, 3-D data analysis, error minimization, object and environment modeling, object detection and recognition, parallel and real-time vision, and data fusion. The paradigm underlying the papers is that robotic systems require repeated and hierarchical application of the perception-planning-action cycle. The primary focus of the papers is the perception part of the cycle. Issues related to complete implementations are also discussed.