Remote planning and operation of a UGV through ROS and commercial mobile networks.

Abstract

Recent advances in disaster robotics have improved percep-tual intelligence and maneuverability of unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) and aerial (UAV) vehicles for search and rescue (SAR) missions. Nev-ertheless, effective deployment of disaster robots in complex SAR sce-narios poses additional mission-level challenges regarding operation and monitoring. These challenges include building maps for generating safe paths for the robots, designing reliable communication schemes, and in-tegrating the robotic platforms and human responders through a mission control center. In this paper, we address these problems by applying a mission-oriented Internet of robotic things (IoRT) architecture that in-tegrates robots and human agents trough ROS-based communications. This architecture has been validated in a urban SAR scenario from a remote (440 km) mission control center through a commercial mobile network.