From RoboCup Rescue to supervised autonomous mobile robots for remote inspection of industrial plants

With increasing capabilities and reliability of autonomous mobile robots, inspection of remote industrial plants in challenging environments becomes feasible. With the ARGOS challenge, oil and gas company TOTAL S.A. initiated an international competition aimed at the development of the first autonomous mobile robot which can safely operate in complete or supervised autonomy over the entire onshore or offshore production site, potentially in hazardous explosive atmospheres and harsh conditions. In this work, the approach of joint Austrian–German Team ARGONAUTS towards solving this challenge is introduced, focussing on autonomous capabilities. These build on functional components developed during prior participation in the RoboCup Rescue Robot League