Locomotion versatility robotics for hazardous industrial confined spaces operation

根据国际劳工组织的数据，全世界每年约有230万人因工作而死亡。具体而言，在密闭空间内工作时发生的事故每年导致数千人死亡和致残。例如，阿尔伯塔的石油和天然气行业报告说，每年有近3,000人因密闭空间的工伤事故而致残。自主机器人有可能被用作在复杂的受限危险环境中（包括结构化和非结构化）进行操作的有效工具。他们的运动能力，机动和执行危险的工作环境中，如那些内遇到倒塌的建筑物，压力容器，筒仓，储罐，地下电缆画廊，飞机机翼，检修孔，泵站，等等是巨大的。然而，在机器人可以有效地部署在这样的空间内之前，仍然存在与自主性，运动性和适应性相关的主要挑战，尽管在估计，执行和环境中存在不确定性，但必须做出安全关键决策。该项目将开发新型混合移动的机器人配置，能够访问不同几何特征和危险级别的空间，并结合强化学习工具，用于全身易处理的运动规划解决方案。结果将使部署混合可重构机器人的不确定性估计下，通过复杂的估计方案，如视觉惯性里程计，取决于环境中的功能分布。这项工作对于减少在工业混乱危险密闭空间内工作时与工作有关的事故数量非常重要。研究结果将使机器人在关键应用中的操作成为可能，包括发电厂检查，建筑，采矿和许多其他减少将人类置于危险工作环境中的应用。利用阿尔伯塔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，可以在需要时就位和部署。研究结果将使危险密闭空间中的工作更安全，更有效，并有助于降低与密闭空间进入相关的高成本。

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.