Autonomous Door Opening with a Rescue Robot

Autonomy of a mobile robot can only be achieved if it independently deals with obstacles. This article discusses an experience of autonomously opening doors by the Russian crawler rescue robot Servosila Engineer. A door and handle detection is based on the YOLO v3 algorithm. The robot motion and stopping at a predefined distance are guided by a laser range finder. After gripping the door handle, the door could be opened using either a pulling or pushing method. Recommended optimal distance to the door, an angle at which the robot turns towards the door and a stopping point for the robot were experimentally set and evaluated in an indoor office environment.

I. Introduction

An autonomous door opening plays an important role in a mobile robot navigation within an indoor environment. While for a service mobile robot that operates in a regular mode within a smart house environment the door opening procedure could be controlled by a central server of the house [1], for rescue robots that typically access partially collapsed buildings via various voids [2] an ability to negotiate with doors is crucial. The process of an autonomous door opening by a mobile robot could be divided into seven stages.