Research on rescue robots climbing up stairs based on the estimation of slope angles with LRF

This paper presents a rescue robot climbing up stairs based on the estimation of angles with LRF. In disaster area, rescue robots are needed to help injured people under broken buildings instead of rescue workers. Then, the robots require high skills to be controlled, because the robots are operated by remote controls with wireless cameras. Especially, in case of running over steps to go to upstairs to find victims, it is hard to recognize a depth between robots and steps for operators with wireless cameras. In this paper, we propose a method to estimate slope angles of stairs using LRF and an angle control method for sub-crawlers of rescue robots. First, we present a method in order to estimate a slope angle of stairs with LRF. Second, we construct an ideal slope with wooden plates and show a validity of our proposed method. Third, a selection method of measured points for an accurate calculation of estimation for the slope angle is considered. Finally, it is shown that our constructed rescue robot recognizes the angle of the slope and climbs up the stairs with controlling postures of the robot with sub-crawlers.