Issues Relative to the Control of Large High Speed Unmanned Vehicles for Use in Crash Rescue Operations. A Technical Paper Presented to the American Nuclear Society, Ninth International Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote Systems Held in Seattle, WA on March 4-8, 2001

摘要

This investigation was performed to provide a migration path for the standard vehicle control unit used by the Air Force Ground Robotics Group at AFRL/MLQF in anticipation of requirements to control large high speed vehicles for crash rescue and fire fighting applications on military runways. The control systems of small, slow moving machines common in research and development platforms have historically ignored vehicle dynamics beyond basic parameters such as acceleration, steering and braking. The limited velocities of these vehicles does not significantly impact or limit the turn radius and turn rate to introduce conditions dangerous to the vehicle. In contrast, a large and/or fast vehicle may rollover during a sharp turn even at moderate speeds. The success of this effort is reflected in the minimal development time experienced through exploiting the existing control system and addressing the known differences in control parameters. Although the goal of the effort was only to obtain characterization data for the vehicle control software prior to actual implementation, the prototype control system provided operation at low speeds allowing the developers to test algorithms outside of a simulation environment. Higher speed operation is available within the current implementation, but safety constraints have not been fully implemented. Completion of the first phase of this project indicates a high probability for success in both the second and third phases. Already, the braking system has been implemented, investigations of the use of digital video to reduce radio frequency transmitters and receivers have been conducted, turrent control via the joystick implemented and tested, and remote control of all functions have been verified. The integration of system parameters measured during phase I, and the design and implementation of safety mechanisms will provide for the base platform for the Remote Crash Rescue Vehicle.