Aeronautics and astronautics – Aircraft – heavier-than-air – Fluid sustained
Reexamination Certificate
2001-09-25
2003-07-08
Jordan, Charles T. (Department: 3644)
Aeronautics and astronautics
Aircraft, heavier-than-air
Fluid sustained
C244S02300R, C244S02300R, C244S012100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06588701
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to remotely-controlled unmanned mobile devices adapted to function as a robot scout to gather information regarding conditions prevailing at a disaster site and to communicate this information to a rescue mission.
2. Status of Prior Art
In disaster situations, the availability of timely and accurate information regarding conditions prevailing at the site of the disaster may be crucial to the success of a rescue mission. Typical, yet not exclusive, of such situations are an explosion at a chemical manufacturing facility, the leakage of hazardous materials at an urban site, a nuclear reactor accident or an earthquake as well as other serious ecological and natural catastrophes.
Should a rescue mission seek to gain advance information regarding conditions prevailing in the region of a disaster so that the mission can decide on appropriate rescue procedures, in many cases this attempt may expose scouts assigned to this task to life-threatening risks. For example, if the disaster area is the site of a nuclear reactor accident in which released into the area are lethal radioactive particles, scouts would be ill advised to enter this area.
The present invention resides in a remotely-controlled unmanned mobile device (UMD) functioning as a robot scout adapted to enter and reconnoiter a disaster site in behalf of a rescue mission to gather information in regard to conditions prevailing at the site and to communicate this information to the mission. The UMD is operable either in an air-mobility mode or in a ground-mobility mode, so that it is capable of fully exploring the site. While conditions prevailing at the site of a disaster may threaten the life of a living scout, they can do no injury to a robot scout.
Because in its air-mobility mode the UMD operates in a manner similar to that of a vertical take-off and landing vehicle (VTOL), of prior art interest in this regard is the unmanned VTOL air vehicle described e.g. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,295,643 to Ebbert et al. This device is capable of vertical take-off and landing in confined areas. It is also capable of transition to horizontal high speed flight and is able to hover and loiter for a period of time. The vehicle includes coaxial forward and aft centerbodies, and a ducted rotor having a plurality of propellers. The ducted fan is aerodynamically efficient and is safe because of its unexposed rotor blades.
And since a UMD in accordance with the invention when operating in a ground mobility mode can walk on the terrain of the disaster site, however difficult the terrain, of prior art interest is the multi-legged walking robot disclosed e.g. by Takeuchi in U.S. Pat. No. 5,842,533. This device is capable of walking on uneven ground while carrying a payload. This multi-legged walking robot provides some of the basic capabilities for the ground mobility portion of a dual-mode UMD device in accordance with the invention.
In the six-legged walking robot described by Paynter in U.S. Pat. No. 5,040,626, each leg, composed of two links, has three controlled degrees-of-freedom of rotary motion. This device is also capable of walking on uneven ground and carrying a payload.
Obstacle avoidance and indoor navigation capability is needed in order to execute the mission of a robot scout in a disturbed environment. A system for obstacle avoidance and path planning is disclosed by Takenaka in U.S. Pat. No. 5,502,638. A survey of sensors and techniques appropriate for indoor positioning is set forth in Borenstein, J., et. al., “Mobile Robot Positioning—Sensors and Techniques”, The Journal of Robotic Systems, Vol. 14, No. 4, 1997, pp. 231-249, and in Borenstein, J., et. Al., “Navigating Mobile Robots: Sensors and Techniques”, A. K. Peters Ltd., Wellesley, Mass., 1995.
Of prior art background interest regarding ducted fan VTOL devices, walking robots, distributed decentralized command and control of multiple mobile devices, as well as a unit for command control of mobile devices are the following U.S. patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,295,643 (1994)—ducted fan VTOL
U.S. Pat. No. 5,842,533 (1998)—legged robot
U.S. Pat. No. 5,040,626 (1991)—legged robot
U.S. Pat. No. 5,502,638 (1996)—path planning and obstacle avoidance
U.S. Pat. No. 5,340,056 (1994)—Active defense system—cooperative
Operation of multiple UAVs (distributed-decentralized command and control of multiple unmanned devices).
Also of prior art interest in regard to various features included in a UMD robot scout in accordance with the invention are the following publications:
Chen, Chun-Hung et. al., “Motion Planning of Walking Robots in Environments with Uncertainty”, Journal of Robotic Systems, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Volume 16, No. 10, 1999, pp. 527-545.
Todd, D. J., “Walking Machines—An Introduction to Legged Robots”, Kogan Page Ltd., London U.K., 1985, pp. 63-168.
Movarec, Hans P., “Robot Rover Visual Navigation”, UMI Research Press, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1981, pp. 49-147.
Thorpe, Charles E., ed., “Vision and Navigation”, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Norwell Mass., 1990, pp.
Robert, Luc, et. al., “Applications of Non-Metric Vision to Some Visually Guided Robotic Tasks”, in Aloimonos, Yiannis, ed., “Visual Navigation—From Biological Systems to Unmanned Ground Vehicles”, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, Mahwah, N.J., 1997, pp. 89-134.
Weng, J. J., et. al.,“Visual Navigation Using Fast Content-Based Retrieval”, in Aloimonos, Yiannis, ed., “Visual Navigation—From Biological Systems to Unmanned Ground Vehicles”, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, Mahwah, N.J., 1997, pp. 178-217.
Dean, Thomas, et. al., “Planning and Navigation in Stochastic Environments”, in Aloimonos, Yiannis, ed., “Visual Navigation—From Biological Systems to Unmanned Ground Vehicles”, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, Mahwah, N.J., 1997, pp., 251-274.
Adams, Martin David, “Sensor Modeling, Design and Data Processing for Autonomous Navigation”, World Scientific Publishers, Singapore, 1999, pp. 153-208.
Song, Shin-Min, et. al., “Machines That Walk”, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1989, pp. 23-281.
Fahlstrom, Paul G., et. al., “Introduction to UAV Systems”, UAV Systems Inc., Columbia, Md., 1993, pp. II 42-II 47.
Kohlman, David L., “Introduction to V/STOL Airplanes”, Iowa State University Press, Ames, Iowa, 1981.
Yavnai A., “Distributed Decentralized Architecture for Autonomous Cooperative Operation of Multiple Agent System”, in Proceedings of IEEE Symposium on Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Technology, Jul. 19-20, 1994, Cambridge, pp. 61-67.
Arlowe, H. D., “Airborne Remote Operated Device”, Proceedings of the 15
th
Annual Technical Symposium of the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems, San-Diego, Calif., Jun. 6-8, 1988, pp. 1-13.
Borenstein, J., et. al., “Mobile Robot Positioning—Sensors and Techniques”, The Journal of Robotic Systems, Vol. 14, No. 4, 1997, pp. 231-249.
Borenstein, J., et. al., “Navigating Mobile Robots: Sensors and Techniques”, A.K. Peters Ltd., Wellesley, Mass., 1995.
Even, S., “Graph Algorithms”, Computer Science Press, Maryland, USA, 1979.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the foregoing, the main object of this invention is to provide a remotely-controlled unmanned mobile device (UMD) adapted to function as a robot scout in behalf of a rescue mission to enter and reconnoiter the site of a disaster, to gather information regarding conditions prevailing at this site and to communicate this information to the mission which can then decide on rescue actions appropriate to the prevailing conditions. The UMD may be adapted to additional functions, all as required and appropriate.
More particularly an object of this invention is to provide a dual mobility UMD which is operable either in an air mobility mode or in a ground mobility mode, making it possible for the robot scout to fully explore the disaster site.
Among the significant advantages of a UMD robot scout according to the invention are the following:
A. The UMD can fly from a nearby safe station to the disaster area and reconnoiter the area to gather information
Birch & Stewart Kolasch & Birch, LLP
Holzen Stephen A
Jordan Charles T.
Rafael - Armament Development Authority Ltd.
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