Page 431 - Mechatronics for Safety, Security and Dependability in a New Era

Ch84-I044963.fm Page 415 Tuesday, August 1, 2006 5:00 PM
1, 2006
Page 415
Tuesday, August
Ch84-I044963.fm
5:00 PM
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DESIGN OF MULTI SENSOR UNITS FOR
SEARCHING INSIDE OF RUBBLE
1
1
1
Kenji Inoue , Masato Yamamoto , Tomohito Takubo ,
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Yasushi Mae and Tatsuo Arai 1
1
Department of Systems Innovation, Graduate School of Engineering Science,
Osaka University,
Toyonaka, Osaka, 560-8531, Japan
' Department of Human and Artificial Intelligence Systems, Faculty of Engineering,
University of Fukui,
Fukui, Fukui, 910-8507, Japan

ABSTRACT
"Search balls" are small sensor units for searching inside of rubble. Each ball is not equipped with
locomotion mechanism but contains some sensors for searching for disaster victims and a radio
transceiver in an impact-resistant outer shell. Many balls are thrown into rubble and fall down while
repeatedly colliding; they are scattered inside the rubble. The sensor information from the balls is
transmitted on radio out of the rubble and monitored at a safe area. Thus rescuers can search a wide
area inside the rubble rapidly. The developed ball has two wireless cameras for search, infrared LEDs
for illumination, a radio receiver for communication with outside monitoring computers and a battery;
these are packed into an impact-resistant sphere outer shell. This ball can provide the view of its entire
circumstance by rotating the cameras using a motor. Just like a brim of a hat, a ring is attached to the
shell for suppressing rolling of the ball; it is effective for distribution of balls inside rubble.
KEYWORDS

Rescue, Search, Sensor, Camera, Infrared LED, Wireless Communication, Rubble

INTRODUCTION
At disaster areas created by earthquakes, it is important to find victims buried under rubble as rapidly
as possible. In the current rescue activities, because rescuers cannot enter narrow gaps among rubble,
they are forced to find victims using a little information such as voice and sound from the victims.
Hence rapid search is difficult. Furthermore, for fear of secondary disasters by fire, gas leak and
collapse of buildings, disaster areas are also dangerous for rescuers. For these reasons, practical rescue
devices, machines or robots for searching are strongly expected. These devices and machines are
required to be small, lightweight, cheap, non-flammable, low energy consuming, easy-to-operate and
well-adapted to irregular terrain. Recently, many search robots have been studied and developed
(Kamegawa (2004), Kimura (2002), Osuka (2003), Perrin (2004), Stoeter (2002), Stormont (2003),