Evolution of urban robotic system developments

Urban settings represent a challenging environment for teleoperated and autonomous robot systems. We present several different improved and novel robotic locomotion and exploration/inspection systems designed for the arenas of military reconnaissance and even entertainment/toys. The designs presented in this paper focus in on all- and flat-floor teleoperated/autonomous-capability robotic platforms developed at CMU over the past year. The Pandora and Minidora robot systems are tracked robot systems with self-contained computing, power and wireless communications systems. A sensor suite including stereoscopic and panospheric cameras, light-stripers and acoustic sonar-ring(s) allow the systems to operate autonomously. Individually adjustable track-modules give both of these robot systems extreme mobility in natural (vegetation, soils) and man-made (roads, steps) outdoor environments as well as indoor arenas (sewers, staircases, etc.). The Cyclops and Omniclops robot systems are self-driving spherical camera-platforms intended to be deployed on indoor flat-floor terrain for exploration tasks. Both systems also are fully self-contained in terms of locomotion, computing, power, and control. Both systems differ in their design for rolling and steering, as well as the camera sensor used-all these will be detailed in this paper. Locomotion for all the above systems was shown successfully over various flat and extreme terrains, including reconfiguration to best suit the terrain and enable future sensor-supported autonomous operations.