A wireless contact point sensor for tracked robots

Mobile robots offer significant potentials for inspection and surveillance of damage sites after building collapses in the course of a natural or manmade catastrophe. They can be operated semi-autonomously or remote controlled which decreases the danger of the first responders at place. Nevertheless the mentioned scenarios are mostly hard-to-reach and hazardous environments. Therefore mobile robots for the use in such areas have to possess outstanding locomotion and mobility capabilities. Those can be theoretically provided by snake-like robots which have a slender, segmented and modular structure. Furthermore the trafficability and terrainability can be improved by the use of tracks as propulsive elements. Though the use of tracks is best suited for unstructured terrain their design is challenging. This is especially due to the aspect of sensor integration for the detection of physical system-environment-interaction which is necessary for a better terrain adaptation. The paper at hand introduces and describes a new wireless contact sensor for contact point detection for the mobile robot MOEBHIU²S. It focuses on the design, the post integration into the tracks, the signal routing by using RFID technology and first results measured on a test rig.