Basic research on the driving performance of an autonomous rescue robot with obstacles

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 particular, it can be difficult to climb slopes and stairs. Here, we use an acceleration sensor to automate the negotiation of slopes and stairs and describe the experimental results of this approach.