Distributed Proximity Sensors-Integrated Hyper-Redundant Robots With Augmented Spatial Shape for Unstructured Environment Exploration

Current exploration in confined environments for hyper-redundant robots (HRRs) requires prior knowledge of the space, and its planning and control are typically performed offline. However, plenty of operating conditions are unstructured, which require online perception, online decision-making, and online observation by operators. To address this limitation, this article develops a distributed proximity sensors-integrated and augmented reality (AR)-enabled HRR. It aims to provide both proximity and visual sensing to assist safe exploration toward tortuous and confined unstructured space. The robot integrates a customized on-body electronic skin with time-of-flight arrays on each segment’s outer surface for ranging measurement. The collected data is utilized as the input for the proposed proximity-assisted exploration algorithm to achieve the exploration in confined scenes. The operator can use the AR head-mounted display to observe the virtual HRR overlay and magnified endoscopic image screen, helping avoid environmental occlusion and improve visual intuition. Experiments are carried out in open and unstructured confined environments to evaluate its performance. Results and demonstrations show that the developed perception-enhanced HRR and perception-enabled exploration strategies exhibit its great capability to explore the unstructured environment.