SILO6: A six-legged robot for humanitarian de-mining tasks

Detection and removal of antipersonnel landmines in infested fields is an important worldwide problem. Around 100 million landmines have been deployed over the last two decades, and demining will take several more decades, even if no more mines were deployed in future. A high mine-clearance rate can only be accomplished by using new technologies such as improved sensors, efficient manipulators and mobile robots. This paper presents some basic ideas on the configuration and controller of a mobile system for detecting and locating antipersonnel landmines in an efficient and effective way. The whole system has been configured to work in a semi-autonomous mode with a view also to robot mobility and energy efficiency. The paper outlines the main features of the overall system and focuses on some aspects of the controller.This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology under Grant CICYT DPI2001-1595.Peer reviewe

Continuous free-crab gaits for hexapod robots on a natural terrain with forbidden zones: An application to humanitarian demining

Autonomous robots are leaving the laboratories to master new outdoor applications, and walking robots in particular have already shown their potential advantages in these environments, especially on a natural terrain. Gait generation is the key to success in the negotiation of natural terrain with legged robots; however, most of the algorithms devised for hexapods have been tested under laboratory conditions. This paper presents the development of crab and turning gaits for hexapod robots on a natural terrain characterized by containing uneven ground and forbidden zones. The gaits we have developed rely on two empirical rules that derive three control modules that have been tested both under simulation and by experiment. The geometrical model of the SILO-6 walking robot has been used for simulation purposes, while the real SILO-6 walking robot has been used in the experiments. This robot was built as a mobile platform for a sensory system to detect and locate antipersonnel landmines in humanitarian demining missions.Funding for this paper was provided by CICYT under Grant DPI2001-1595 and DPI2004-05824.Peer reviewe

Using Walking Robots for Humanitarian De-mining Tasks

Detection and removal of antipersonnel landmines is an important world-wide concern. A huge number of landmines have been deployed during the last twenty years and demining will take several more decades, assuming the topic that no more mines are going to be deployed in the future. An adequate mine clearance rate requires the use of new technologies such as improved sensors, efficient manipulators and mobile robots. This paper presents some basic ideas about the configuration of a mobile system to detect and locate antipersonnel landmines in an efficient and effective way. This paper describes the main features of the global system that consists of: a sensor head able to detect some kind of landmines; a manipulator to move the sensor head over large areas; a locating system based on a global positioning system, a remote supervisor computer and a legged robot used as a carrier of the referred subsystems. The whole system has been configured to work on a semi-autonomous mode taking care on robot mobility and energy efficiency, as well.Peer reviewe

Accurate tracking of legged robots on natural terrain

Statically stable walking locomotion research has focused mainly on robot design and gait generation. However, there is a need to expand robots’ capabilities so that walking machines can accomplish the kinds of real tasks for which they are eminently suited. Many such tasks demand trajectory tracking, but researchers have traditionally ignored this subject. This article focuses on the tracking of predefined trajectories with hexapod robots walking on natural terrain with forbidden zones. The method presented herein, which relies on gait algorithms defined elsewhere, describes certain localization strategies and control techniques that have been employed to follow trajectories accurately and have been implemented in a real walking hexapod. Several experimental examples are included to assess the proposed algorithms.Funding for this work was provided by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology under Grants DPI2001-1595 and DPI2004-05824.Peer reviewe

Location of legged robots in outdoor environments

Knowledge of a robot's position with an accuracy of within a few centimeters is required for potential applications for legged robots, such as humanitarian de-mining tasks. Individual sensors are unable to provide such accuracy. Thus information from various sources must be used to accomplish the tasks. Following this trend, this paper describes the method developed for estimating the position of legged robots in outdoor environments. The proposed method factors in the specific features of legged robots and combines dead-reckoning estimation with data provided by a Differential Global Positioning System through an extended Kalman filter algorithm. This localization system permits accurate trajectory tracking of legged robots during critical activities such as humanitarian de-mining tasks. Preliminary experiments carried out with the SILO4 system have shown adequate performance using this localization system. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Peer Reviewe

Mobile robotic system for detection and location of antipersonnel land mines: Field tests

[Purpose] The purpose of this paper is to present the results obtained in the field tests of a new system for detection and location of antipersonnel land mines.[Design/methodology/approach] The paper presents briefly the overall system and then it focuses on the description and analysis of the results obtained in three basic experiments: accuracy for following trajectories, mine detection and capability for walking over landmines.[Findings] The paper finds that the system has been assessed positively for this specific application because it satisfies the initial system requirements.[Research limitations/implications] The research and experiments have been focused on irregular terrain with low vegetation and free from obstacles. Further research will be focused on the complete coverage of a terrain including large vegetation and obstacles.[Practical implications] This paper presents practical results for a very well defined application: humanitarian de-mining. However, many of the results related with robot location, following of trajectories and general control techniques are applicable to any mobile robot for outdoor applications in general.[Originality/value] This paper is the first work (to the best author's knowledge) reporting experimental features of a walking system for humanitarian de-mining. The paper does not only report on the mobile platform, but also on the scanning manipulator and sensor head features. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.Peer Reviewe

A six-legged robot-based system for humanitarian demining missions

[Full-text paper not available yet]Removal of antipersonnel landmines is a worldwide problem currently requiring the use of new technologies such as improved sensors and efficient mobile robots. This paper is focused on the description of a system that relies on a walking robot that carries sensors to detect and locate antipersonnel landmines efficiently and effectively. The paper describes the main features of the walking robot and additional equipment purposefully developed for this kind of application. The overall system consists of a sensor head that can detect certain landmine types, a manipulator to move the sensor head over large areas, a locating system based on a global positioning system, a remote supervisor computer and the SILO6 walking robot used as the subsystems’ carrier. The whole system has been configured to work in a semi-autonomous mode with a view also to robot mobility and energy efficiency. Some of the achievements already accomplished with this system are reported.This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science under Grant CICYT DPI2004-05824.Peer reviewe

A six-legged robot-based system for humanitarian demining missions

[Full-text paper not available yet]Removal of antipersonnel landmines is a worldwide problem currently requiring the use of new technologies such as improved sensors and efficient mobile robots. This paper is focused on the description of a system that relies on a walking robot that carries sensors to detect and locate antipersonnel landmines efficiently and effectively. The paper describes the main features of the walking robot and additional equipment purposefully developed for this kind of application. The overall system consists of a sensor head that can detect certain landmine types, a manipulator to move the sensor head over large areas, a locating system based on a global positioning system, a remote supervisor computer and the SILO6 walking robot used as the subsystems’ carrier. The whole system has been configured to work in a semi-autonomous mode with a view also to robot mobility and energy efficiency. Some of the achievements already accomplished with this system are reported.This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science under Grant CICYT DPI2004-05824.Peer reviewe

Interculturalidad e inclusión del alumnado marroquí en educación primaria de Andalucía

En este trabajo se muestran los resultados de una investigación desarrollada en una de las zonas prioritarias para el asentamiento de población extranjera en España, concretamente la Comunidad Autónoma de Andalucía. En el curso 2011-2012, había en la región de estudio un total de 32.308 alumnos extranjeros matriculados en régimen general en Educación Primaria. En este sentido, se plantea el siguiente problema de investigación: ¿en qué medida se siente integrado el alumnado de origen marroquí de educación obligatoria en Andalucía? y ¿cuáles podrían ser las líneas de actuación para favorecer la convivencia escolar? Con el propósito de dar respuesta al problema planteado, el objetivo general de esta investigación es analizar aquellos factores más relevantes que favorecen la inclusión del alumnado de origen marroquí matriculado en centros de educación primaria públicos de Andalucía. La metodología utilizada es múltiple y diversa, combinando el enfoque cualitativo y cuantitativo. Se han empleado varias técnicas de recogida de información: el análisis documental, el cuestionario y la observación participante. Entre los principales resultados hallados, cabe destacar que el mayor obstáculo que el alumnado ha encontrado al llegar a España en su proceso de integración es la lengua. No obstante, la mayor parte del alumnado estudiado afirma tener una identidad múltiple, definiéndose a sí mismo tanto marroquí como español. Esta realidad demanda por parte de los educadores intervenciones pedagógicas planificadas para seguir favoreciendo y madurando las identidades múltiples, así como para mejorar la adquisición de la lengua de la escuela, instrumento clave para favorecer la inclusión