APPLYING MARTIAN ROVER TECHNOLOGY TO SOLVE TERRESTRIAL PROBLEMS: THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN AUTONOMOUS COLD-TRAILING OMNIRANGE ROBOT (ACTOR)

摘要

All the forest's a stage, and all the fires and their fighters merely players; they have their exits and their entrances, and one ACTOR in its time plays many parts, its acts including hotspot detection and mapping.rnWith the successful completion of NASA's 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers mission and the well-documented triumph of the Pathfinder Sojourner rover in 1997, the autonomous capabilities of mobile robots to explore and map hostile environments have been proven. But although the tremendous potential for these rovers has been demonstrated, extensive research in "search-and-discover" robotics has yet to be implemented in terrestrial applications. Specifically, one direct application of the Martian rover is its usefulness in detecting and mapping hotspots in the aftermath of a forest fire, serving as a safer, faster, more efficient alternative to current human-centric methods within an inhospitable environment. It is difficult to find evidence that such an application has ever been previously attempted.rnThe majority of a firefighter's time is spent uncovering glowing embers among the ashes of forest fires, to prevent any resurgence of flames in the undergrowth. Cold-trailing for hotspots is a tedious task, often resulting in burns to the hands of the firefighters. Furthermore, helicopter infrared systems do not display a fine enough resolution over large tracts of land when there is interference from smoke or clouds, and areas of brush are challenging to investigate. An Autonomous Cold-Trailing OmnirangernRobot (ACTOR) may be developed to solve this problem; indeed, it can be shown that such a task is an ideal application of Martian rover-based technologies.rnA proof-of-concept robot that addresses such issues was designed and prototyped, and its details are outlined in this paper. It draws from the Martian rovers in four key aspects - 1) mechanical construction and control, utilizing adaptable tracked wheels that permit mobility on rough, uneven terrain; 2) auxiliary sensors, enabling the ACTOR to perceive its environment, and localize based on the grid information previously stored; 3) perception to resolve conflicting or intermittent signals from auxiliary sensors into a realistic and probable world view; 4) path-planning to determine the next physical step required of the rover; and 5) wireless communication, updating a remote control station by notifying users of the location and intensity of potential ember sites, and also permitting human intervention as required. Once a basic rover is implemented with these four subsystems, the design is improved and extended to fire-fighting applications with the addition of a thermal imaging vision system. Full-scale implementation of such a robot would be of immense practical value in the wake of the fires that devastate the world's forests each summer, by increasing the efficiency and accuracy of contemporary firefighting techniques.rnIn documenting the design process of a terrestrial application of the Martian rover, the ACTOR Project seeks to demonstrate the feasibility of the transfer of space technology to the fire-fighting industry, in addition to exemplifying the adaptation of rover ideas to education applications.