Year: 2011

Word from Japan on robots and Fukushima

We’ve heard from Prof. Satoshi Tadokoro, director the International Rescue Systems Institute, who is the leading rescue robots researcher in Japan. He’s been asked about why aren’t robots being used for the reactor– here’s his response:

Several types of firefighting robots have been developed by Tokyo FD,
Osaka FD, Kanagawa FD, etc. in Japan.  Most of them are small type UGV.
A large unmanned spraying robot of Tokyo FD has been used for
large-scale fires, such as at Bridgestone fire incident.  I do not know
why it is not used at Fukushima case.  Maybe the reachable
distance/height of spraying would not be enough for this plant, in
addition to the radiation issue.  A robot developed after the JCO
incident by METI has been used in exercises at Rokkasho nuclear plant.
It is being actually used for monitoring the radiation.  Many robots
were developed after this incident, but they did not continued.  Power
plant conpanies mentioned that they did not need such robots because
their nuclear plants never have accidents and are safe.

This is a common problem. Emergencies are outside the normal so it’s hard to speed money in anticipation of them, hard to save for that rainy day. The robotics community has so much technology just 18 months from being hardened and packaged for responders to use…

I remain depressed that the US US&R teams carry with them pretty much the same technology they had in 2001 at the World Trade Center. Sure a Predator or Global Hawk may be circling overhead and that imagery eventually is scrubbed and makes it to them if they have sufficient bandwidth, but robots and sensors in their hands and under their control, nope.

From Quake to Nuclear Disaster: Different Problems, Different Robots

We’ve heard from some of our colleagues in the field about rescue robots but now the issue has shifted to nuclear response… I’m getting lots of inquiries.

About the rescue robots: The rescue roboticists had contacted various fire departments who for this phase did not need the ground robots (see previous blogs) as the tasks are getting people off the tops of buildings or trying to recover bodies. However, we have reports that there is considerable interest in robots for recovery- especially inspecting port and underwater infrastructure as well as in removing rubble. I have no confirmation that they have deployed any robots for these tasks. We have shifted our standby cache to include more underwater vehicles with very accurate sonars.

Now to nuclear response–

Red Whittaker at the Field Robotics Institute at CMU is the expert in using robots for nuclear disasters (had robots at the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island- but many months later). A few years ago CRASAR looked at what it would take to use our small rescue robots to search for survivors in the aftermath of a “dirty bomb” where radiation wouldn’t be as intense (the scenario from The Sum of All Fears)- and even for this “easy” case, it  wasn’t feasible.

Sensors would probably be the first to go– video and cameras are fairly sensitive to radiation from their CCD chips. It’s impossible to work remotely if you can’t see.

The bigger, slower bomb squad robots were first invented by Oak Ridge National Laboratories to handle nuclear disasters which spun off Remotec. These robots have to big to carry all the shielding. The newer ones are lighter and less protected and the IED robots have evolved to be even lighter- so less reliable in a nuclear disaster. So in some sense you need a dinosaur robot- big, beefy, slow, and stupid (as in few processors)– and even then it’s just a matter of time before enough radiation fries something important… You don’t know how long you’ve got.

Big and stupid means slow. And limited battery times- and who will be changing those batteries? You have to go in and out… losing time at each “lap.”

Stupid is the wrong way to go based on our human-robot interaction studies. Less sensors, particularly cameras means harder to control or move quickly. And less sensors means no autonomy so if you get tired, the robot runs into things. And that could make things worse. Or ruin the robot.  So you want more autonomy so that the robot drives itself, much like a horse. The person directs but the horse actually controls its own motions and adjusts it gait and goes around obstacles.

And then there’s the issue of using a tether or wireless– if radiation doesn’t interfere with wireless, what’s left of the walls and the various containment structures will.

Our hearts and prayers go out to the Japanese. We are, of course, worried about our colleagues in Sendai which is 55 miles from the reactors. There’s no fuel to evacuate.

CBS Small Planet, KBTX TV, Discovery News interviews and videos

Check out this online interview which discusses the Japanese robots and KBTX TV ran a nice follow up on the JST/RESPOND-R exercise that CRASAR hosted with the Japanese rescue robot researchers. (See earlier posts) It’s just morning there now- I’m hoping for an update shortly and maybe the official invitation to participate.  The contact person for the Japanese rescue robotics work is Prof. Fumitoshi Matsuno at matsuno@me.kyoto-u.ac.jp. Prof. Matsuno is the vice president of the International Rescue Systems institute, which is our Japanese counterpart, and is in Kyoto which has communications. Discovery News also posted this article.

Have Robots Been Used in Previous Earthquakes?

I’ve been asked by Erico Guizzo, robotics editor at IEEE Spectrum, asks “have robots been used in previous quakes?” The answer is “yes”- just one,  the 2010 Haiti Earthquake.

The US Army Corps of Engineers used a Seabotix ROV (remotely operated underwater  vehicle) to investigate bridge and seawall damage as part of the US assistance to the Haitian government.  An aerospace company from the US self-deployed and flew a small fixed-wing UAV to get an overview of the damage near an orphanage  in ignorance of the Haitian airspace prohibition on all UAVs (the Predator views you saw were taken from outside Haitian airspace)- which caused a bit of a flap (no pun intended).  Note: CRASAR offered (as always, at no cost through our Roboticists Without Borders program) small AirRobot and ISENSYS helicopters for rapid assessment, a VideoRay ROV, and a AEOS water Surface Vehicle with a special sonar particularly well suited for bridge inspection in shallow water, and our usual ground vehicles suited for commercial building collapses (not a lot in Haiti)   to support the response through US Southern Command but was declined by the Haitian officials who said with ample justification that there were too many responders and NGOs pouring in (at that point many were self-deployed, which has the unintended consequence of saturating the officials and causing them to say just say no).

Prof. Daniele Nardi at Sapienza University of Rome, who is one of the leading European researchers in rescue robotics, demonstrated  his micro-quad rotor UAV in the aftermath of the 2009 L’aquila earthquake (I got to attend!), but that was intended for the Fire Service to evaluate the device and not a part of the actual response.

Japanese Rescue Robots are Back Home and at Work, CRASAR on Standby

We’ve just gotten word from Dr. Tetsuya Kimura that the Japanese delegation led by the International Rescue Systems Institute did arrive back in Japan. Dr. Tadokoro is en route though the roads are closed to Sendai (his home) with the Active Scope Camera, which is possibly the most capable robot for tight spaces (we used it at the Berkman Plaza Collapse). Dr. Koyanagi is deploying his QUINCE robot around his home area of Tokyo and the rest of the delegation is getting organized to join the Sendai team to assist with the rescue.

UPDATE: the Sendai members’ families are reportedly OK!

We remain on standby for an official invitation. We are recommending small UAVs (the AirRobot and Draganflyer multiple rotor helis plus the traditional ones) for aerial inspection of upper levels of buildings and lower altitude checks (CRASAR has AirRobots while Mark Bateson is looking to bring the Draganflyers and Chandler Griffin of ISENSYS is always ready with his helis), Dr. Howie Choset’s snake robot, small ROVs for bridge inspection and underwater recovery (being coordinated by Dr. Eric Steimle at AEOS),  and our workhorses for inspecting the interior of rubble- Inuktun Extremes and Micro-VGTV. These complement the slightly larger UGVs and Active Scope Camera that the IRS researchers have.

Our hearts and prayers go out to our colleagues and the Japanese people.

Japanese quake: Leading Researchers Gathered at Texas A&M

See video from KBTX on the robots and exercise.

update: the death toll is climbing to horrific numbers and the team is all sending our thoughts and prayers for the victims and to our colleagues who must be so worried about their families.

Ironically, the leading researchers from Japan in rescue robotics led by Dr. Satoshi Tadakoro of the International Rescue Systems Institute are here in the USA for the JST-RESPONDR exercise and workshop that CRASAR organized. They were heading back this morning, but now with more urgency. They have tentatively requested our assistance from our Roboticists Without Borders program, but we are waiting for the required formal request.

The types of robots that based on the exercises and past experience that would be of use include: small Unmanned Aerial Systems to survey damage, particularly from the sides and looking in, snake UGVs (Dr. Howie Choset’s snake was the star of the exercises here and has been used for archeological exploration in Egypt), and underwater ROVs for inspection (Dr. Eric Steimle has had significant experience leading our efforts at Hurricanes Wilma and Ike), and tether-based UGVs (our standard cache).

NZ Quake and Sandfish

Dan Goldman’s work in duplicating sandfish made it into Science News– a reminder of how biomimetic robots could make a real difference in disasters such as the New Zealand earthquake with its dense rubble. The responders continue to find survivors which is fantastic but are racing the clock. We wish we were there to help with more than our prayers- may all the survivors be found quickly, families reunited, and the recovery be quick!

NZ Quake… robots and structures

We’re watching the NZ quake and wishing the survivors, families, and responders the very best.  CRASAR and the sister groups pursuing emergency informatics at Texas A&M and the International Rescue Systems Institute in Japan are on stand-by and have put out the usual offers of assistance- just a reminder we don’t self-deploy.

The NZ quake is a reminder of how important having technology immediately on site is critical, as the first 72 hours are especially critical for life-saving, and for understanding the overall situation to begin recovery planning (which occurs in parallel with the rescue activities but doesn’t get quite the media attention).

In terms of recovery, being able to understand the structural damage, what might collapse in the aftershocks, and what it takes to repair schools, hospitals, and municipal buildings and get them open is important. Ground robots can be used to penetrate the rubble and get the “inside” view. Aerial vehicles, particularly small helicopters, can give structural engineers views that planes or a pair of binoculars on the ground can’t provide. And let’s not forget about bridges, seawalls, ports, and shipping lanes!