Locomotion versatility robotics for hazardous industrial confined spaces operation

用于危险工业密闭空间操作的运动多功能机器人

• 批准号: 561089-2020
• 负责人: RamirezSerrano, Alejandro
• 金额: $ 3.64万
• 依托单位: University of Calgary
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Alliance Grants
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=720629
• 关键词: Locomotion; versatility; robotics; hazardous; industrial

According to the International Labor Organization, about 2.3 million work-related deaths occur annually worldwide. Specifically, incidents taking place when working within confined spaces contribute to thousands of deaths and disabling injuries every year. For example, Alberta's oil and gas industry reports close to 3,000 people being disabled due to confined spaces work-related accidents annually. Autonomous robots have the potential to be used as effective tools for operations in complex confined hazardous environments - both structured and unstructured. Their motion capabilities to maneuver and perform dangerous work in environments such as those encountered inside collapsed buildings, pressure vessels, silos, storage tanks, underground cable galleries, aircraft wings, manholes, pump stations, among many others are tremendous. However, major challenges related to autonomy, locomotion, and adaptability remain before robots can be effectively deployed inside such spaces where safety-critical decisions must be made despite uncertainty in the estimation, execution, and the environment. This project will develop novel hybrid mobile robot configurations capable to access spaces of diverse geometrical features and hazardous levels combined with reinforcement learning tools for whole-body tractable motion-planning solutions. The results will enable to deploy hybrid reconfigurable robots under uncertainty estimation via sophisticated estimation schemes like visual-inertial odometry that depend on the distribution of the features in the environment. The work is important to reduce the number of work-related incidents when working inside industrial chaotic hazardous confined spaces. The results will make possible the operation of robots in critical applications including power plant inspection, construction, mining, and many others reducing placing humans in hazardous-work situations. Using the wealth of experience in Alberta's oil and gas industry, the project will develop effective robotic tools that can be in position and deployed when needed. The results will render work in hazardous confined spaces safer, more effective, and help reduce the high cost associated with confined space entry.

根据国际劳工组织的数据，全世界每年约有230万例与工作有关的死亡。具体而言，在狭窄的空间内工作时发生的事件每年导致数千人死亡并致残伤害。例如，由于每年与工作相关的事故，艾伯塔省的石油和天然气行业报告说，近3,000人被残疾。自主机器人有可能用作在复杂的危险环境中进行操作的有效工具，包括结构化和非结构化。它们的运动能力可以在环境中进行操纵和执行危险的工作，例如在倒塌的建筑物，压力容器，孤岛，储罐，地下有线电视库，飞机翅膀，人孔，人孔，泵站等内遇到的运动能力。但是，与自主权，运动和适应性有关的重大挑战仍然存在，尽管估计，执行和环境不确定性，但必须有效地将机器人部署在这样的空间内。该项目将开发出新型混合移动机器人配置，能够访问各种几何特征和危险水平的空间，并结合加固学习工具，用于全身可拖动运动计划解决方案。结果将使在不确定性估计下通过复杂的估计方案（例如视觉惯性探测仪）在不确定性估算下部署混合式可重构机器人，这些估计方案取决于环境中特征的分布。这项工作对于减少工业混乱的危险狭窄空间中工作时与工作有关的事件的数量很重要。结果将使机器人在关键应用中的操作可能使得包括发电厂检查，建筑，采矿以及许多其他人减少人类在危险工作情况下的操作。利用艾伯塔省石油和天然气行业的丰富经验，该项目将开发有效的机器人工具，这些工具可以在需要时处于适当的位置。结果将使危险的狭窄空间更安全，更有效，并有助于降低与限制空间的高成本相关的工作。