Robotics for Risky Interventions and Environmental Surveillance

Technology has become the solution to many long-standing problems, and while current technologiesmay be effective, it is far from fully addressing the hug, complex, difficult and challenging tasks associated withdisaster missions and risky intervention. The challenge is in finding creative, reliable and applicable technicalsolutions in such highly constrained and uncertain environment. In addition, it is necessary to overcomeconstrains on resources by developing innovative, cost effective and practical technology. Robotics can playimportant intelligent and technological roles that support first response equipment in harsh and dangerousenvironments while replacing rescue personnel from entering unreachable or unsafe places. Robotics solutionsthat are well adapted to local conditions of unstructured and unknown environment can greatly improve safetyand security of personnel as well as work efficiency, productivity and flexibility. Solving and fulfilling the needsof such tasks presents challenges in robotic mechanical structure and mobility, sensors and sensor fusion, autonomous and semi autonomous control, planning and navigation, and machine intelligence. This papercategorizes the source of disasters and associated missions, and highlights the needs for suitable and reliabletechnology and technical and functional requirements of robotic systems to fulfill task objectives. In addition, itshows that robotic technologies can be used for disasters prevention or early warning, intervention and recoveryefforts during disasters with all possible kinds of relevant missions while ensuring quality of service and safety ofhuman beings. Some of these missions may include: demining, search and rescue, surveillance, reconnaissanceand risk assessment, evacuation assistance, intrusion/victim detection and assessment, etc