A Depth Sensing Display for Bomb Disposal Robots

This paper describes a visual display that provides depth of objects to be grasped and was developed at the request of a local bomb squad for use with a bomb disposal robot. The display provides four key functions: (1) it allows the operator to extract the distance between the object and the robot's grasper that each pixel represents, (2) it cues the operator when the object is within a predefined distance from the robot grasper, (3) it can track the object in the video display, and (4) it can continuously display the distance from the robot grasper to the selected object. The display was designed specifically for the Canesta EP200 mounted on a Remotec mini-max robot, but the display functionality is expected to be useful for any robot grasper used in conjunction with a 3D sensor. While the usability of the visual display and its impact on grasper-related performance has not been formally evaluated, the informal feedback from the subject matter experts is that this display meets their requirements.