Evaluation of sensors for mobile robots based on irradiation experiment

After Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant accident, the importance of mobile robot for the nuclear disaster response has been realized again. However there are not many reports about the radiation tolerance evaluation of sensors used for mobile robots. In particular, it is necessary to take into account the radiation shielding of optical instruments such as laser sensors, because their optical parts are exposed to radiation. If there are no radiation shielding, reliability as a safety device and advances functions on the robots such as obstacle detection and avoidance and mapping may also be affected. Therefore, we carried out the irradiation experiments with four kinds of laser range sensors to evaluate their radiation tolerances. Furthermore, we investigate how the failure characteristic of each sensor affects the reliability of a sensor as a safety device and the functions on mobile robots based on the experiments.