SocRob-RESCUE

SocRob RESCUE Logo

Welcome to SocRob RESCUE wiki page. This page introduces SocRob RESCUE, a team composed of volunteers, students, investigators and professors from ISR-IST for the RoboCup RESCUE major league.

Introduction

This team appears as a joint of heterogeneous robots used in ISR-IST for a multitude of projects and research, aiming to not only participate in competitions using those same robots following the guidelines of RoboCup RESCUE, but develop research that contribute to the Urban Search and Rescue panorama as well. It follows the footprints from RESCUE and RAPOSA projects, in which a tracked wheel robot that served as prototype for RAPOSA-NG was fully developed.

Regarding this team focus, it tackles many issues regarding Human Computer Interaction, as aforementioned in project AuReRo (funded by FCT, 2010-2013):

"Field robotics is the use of sturdy robots in unstructured environments. One important example of such a scenario is in Search And Rescue (SAR) operations to seek out victims of catastrophic events in urban environments. While advances in this domain have the potential to save human lives, many challenging problems still hinder the deployment of SAR robots in real situations. This project tackles one such crucial issue: effective real time mapping. To address this problem, we adopt a multidisciplinary approach by drawing on both Robotics and Human Computer Interaction (HCI) techniques and methodologies."

Current Members

• Rodrigo Ventura (Assistant Professor)
• Pedro Lima (Associate Professor)
• Filipe Jesus (MSc Degree, Scholarship)
• João Mendes (MSc Degree, Scholarship)
• Henrique Silva (MSc Degree, Scholarship)
• João O'neil (MSc Student, Volunteer)

Robots

• RAPOSA (used only for demos);
• RAPOSA-NG;
• Quadcopters from UAVision.

Competitions

SocRob RESCUE first participation was with RAPOSA-NG only in Robocup German Open 2012. Although this was SocRob RESCUE first participation, it achieved 5th place out of 12 different teams and 2nd position at Best in Class: Mobility.

In this video, RAPOSA-NG stereo camera is being controlled using attitude readings from an Head Mounted Display for the Best-in-Class mission. This helps to achieve a more natural perception of the environment for the operator.

Publications

• Combining Monocular and Stereo Vision in 6D-SLAM for the Localization of a Tracked Wheel Robot, Filipe Jesus, Rodrigo Ventura, 10th IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics (SSRR 2012), Texas, EUA, 2012. - "PDF":http://mediawiki.isr.ist.utl.pt/images/b/bc/FJslam.pdf

• Safe Teleoperation of a Quadrotor Using FastSLAM, João Mendes, Rodrigo Ventura, 10th IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics (SSRR 2012), Texas, EUA, 2012. - "PDF":http://mediawiki.isr.ist.utl.pt/images/2/2d/JMquad.pdf

• Interactive Mapping in 3D Using RGB-D Data, Pedro Vieira, Rodrigo Ventura, 10th IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics (SSRR 2012), Texas, EUA, 2012. - "PDF":http://mediawiki.isr.ist.utl.pt/images/8/8e/PVinterdata.pdf

• Interactive Mapping using Range Sensor data under localization uncertanty, Pedro Vieira, Rodrigo Ventura, 1st International Workshop on Perception for Mobile Robots Autonomy (PEMRA 2012), Poznan, Poland. - "PDF":http://mediawiki.isr.ist.utl.pt/images/9/98/4.pdf

• Simultaneous Localization and Mapping for tracked wheel robots combining Monocular and Stereo Vision, Filipe Jesus, Rodrigo Ventura, 1st International Workshop on Perception for Mobile Robots Autonomy (PEMRA 2012), Poznan, Poland.

• Assisted Teleoperation of Quadcopters using Obstacle Avoidance, João Mendes, Rodrigo Ventura, 1st International Workshop on Perception for Mobile Robots Autonomy (PEMRA 2012), Poznan, Poland. - "PDF":http://mediawiki.isr.ist.utl.pt/images/5/5a/8.pdf

• Immersive 3-D Teleoperation of a Search and Rescue Robot Using a Head-Mounted Display, Henrique Martins, Rodrigo Ventura, IEEE International Conference on Emerging Techonologies and Factory Automation (ETFA-09), Mallorca, Spain, 2009. — "PDF":http://welcome.isr.ist.utl.pt/img/pdfs/2130_Martins09.pdf

• Robust Autonomous Stair Climbing by a Tracked Robot Using Accelerometer Sensors, Jorge Ferraz, Rodrigo Ventura, International Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots (CLAWAR-09), Istanbul, Turkey, 2009. — "PDF":http://welcome.isr.ist.utl.pt/img/pdfs/2131_Ferraz09.pdf

• Autonomous docking of a tracked wheels robot to its tether cable using a vision-based algorithm, Fausto Ferreira, Rodrigo Ventura, Workshop on Robotics for Disaster Response, ICRA 2009 - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Kobe, Japan, 2009. — "PDF":http://welcome.isr.ist.utl.pt/img/pdfs/1995_paper.pdf

• A Search and Rescue Robot with Tele-Operated Tether Docking System, C. Marques, J. Cristovão, P. Alvito, Pedro Lima, João Frazão, M. Isabel Ribeiro, Rodrigo Ventura, Industrial Robot, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Vol. 34, No.4, pp. 332-338, 2007 , 2007. - "PDF":http://welcome.isr.ist.utl.pt/img/pdfs/1632_IndustrialRobot.pdf

• RAPOSA: Semi-Autonomous Robot for Rescue Operations, C. Marques, J. Cristovão, Pedro Lima, João Frazão, M. Isabel Ribeiro, Rodrigo Ventura, Proc. of IROS2006 - IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Beijing, China, 2006. — "PDF":http://welcome.isr.ist.utl.pt/img/pdfs/1486_paper-final-short.pdf

List of appearances in media and expositions

• (Apr 2013) RAPOSA-NG and a Quadcopter were present in an exposition from FUTURING at Pavilhão do Conhecimento;

• (Apr 2013) RAPOSA-NG was present at Iberanime 2013 LX convention;

• (Mar 2013) RAPOSA-NG and a Quadcopter were present in the XIII Jornadas de Engenharia Electrotécnica e Computadores;

• (Mar 2012) RAPOSA-NG participated in Robocup German Open 2012, achieving 5th place and 2nd position at Best in Class: Mobility;

• (Mar 2012) RAPOSA-NG was present in the XII Jornadas de Engenharia Electrotécnica e Computadores;

• (Jan 2012) RAPOSA-NG appeared in magazine Exame Informática;

• (Dec 2011) RAPOSA-NG appeared in Exame Informática TV from SIC Notícias;

• (Oct 2011) RAPOSA-NG appeared in Jornal das 8 from TVI, showing his stair climbing capabilities;

• (Apr 2011) RAPOSA-NG appeared in Curto Circuito, an entertainment show directed to teenagers;

• (Mar 2011) RAPOSA-NG was present in the IST stand at "Futurália 2011":http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=123890544345857 fair (FIL).

• (Mar 2011) RAPOSA-NG was present in the XI Jornadas de Engenharia Electrotécnica e Computadores;

• (Feb 2010) RAPOSA appeared in Falar Global, a news report on search and rescue robots;

• (Jan 2010) RAPOSA participated in a search and rescue trial in Lisbon, together with Regimento de Bombeiros Sapadores de Lisboa;

• (Jun 2009) News report in "Exame Informatica":http://exameinformatica.clix.pt/multimedia/video/1002799.html ;

• (Jun 2009) RAPOSA was present in the ISR stand at Innovation Days 2009 fair (FIL);

• (November 2008) RAPOSA was present in the "Forum Ciência Viva":http://forum.cienciaviva.pt/ where autonomous stair climbing was demonstrated;

• (March 2008) RAPOSA was present in the VIII Jornadas de Engenharia Electrotécnica e Computadores;

• (August 2007) A joint team of ISR/IST and IDMind members participated in "Civilian European Land-Robot Trial (C-ELROB 2007)":http://www.c-elrob.eu/ event, having achieved the 6th place (in 12 teams) of the Urban Trial;

• (July 2007) RAPOSA was present in the Portugal Electronics and ITs (PorTI 2007) fair, collocated with the "Portuguese Presidency of the European Union":http://www.eu2007.pt/.