Development of active scope camera with sensory functions

Abstract

We had developed an active scope camera: the robot video scope that can move by itself to probe narrow gaps for rescue missions. However, to investigate the interiors of collapsed houses effectively, not only the high mobility but also the sensors, such as vision, audition and haptics should be installed on the robot. According to this, we have developed an active scope camera with the sensory functions and demonstrated these functions in the test field which imitates collapsed houses. In the demonstration, we mainly showed four functions. (1)Detection of collision and it's presentation to the operator, (2)Searching operation assist with the processed vision data, (3)Shape estimation of the robot with sound and IMU data, and (4)Voice enhancement to detect victim's voice.