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involved agents in the triangle formed by humans,
dogs and robots, and to minimize the adverse ones;
(ii) provide the basics of these three agents to work
in a cooperative and efficient way in rescue
missions; and (iii) and to enlarge the human-dog link
by allowing the exploration using mobile robots,
Canine Augmentative Technology (CAT) systems
and trained dogs limiting the human supervision.
Moreover there might be some daily situations
where not all the three agents are needed so the three
agents and the system developed should be able to
work independently.
The human-dog and the human-robot links have
been studied for years and are well documented in
the literature. However, and to our knowledge, it is
the first time that it is attempted to study the
interaction and cooperation between robot-dog
through an autonomous robot with cognitive
capabilities.
1.1 Improving the Performance of
Heterogeneous Search and Rescue
Teams
The goal of the project is to improve the
performance of trained Urban Search and Rescue
(USAR) canine teams. Note that the goal is to
improve the performance of the team as a whole.
This means that the performance of the humans must
be improved as the dog actually does very well on
their own. A dog moves through the rubble, detects
people and indicates where they are. Problems occur
when the handler cannot go where it goes and
therefore does not experience what the dog
experiences. This is where the cooperation with
rescue robots can be very helpful. The cooperation
and interaction of dogs-robots-humans in a USAR
scenario will have several advantages:
A camera is normally used over the dog to
allow the human team to see what the dog is
looking at; however a camera over the robot
could bring new functionalities. It will allow
the human team (i) to see what the dog is
doing, (ii) to have more control over the whole
rescue scene, (iii) to interact with the dog if
he/her gets distracted or needs more
directions, and (iv) to interact with the victim.
The visual information fused with the sensor
data interpretation will allow building a much
more precise situational awareness map.
Mobility of dogs surpasses any robot mobility
(on rubble etc.) however a dog can work for a
very small period of time while a robot could
remain at the scene considerably longer.
The space over the dog is limited and they
might be heavy sensors. A robot could bring
to the team multiple sensors that enhance the
search of the dog.
There are several works that showed that dogs
are not indifferent to robots (Lawson, 2005), so with
the proper training of dogs together with the right
motivation trough rewards, a successful interaction
and cooperation with robots is possible in the
opinion of the experts in Dog training (f.i. K9Dogs
Europe).
Concretely three agents are considered (i) a robot
called Link robot from now on; (ii) a trained dog;
and (iii) a human team. Brief descriptions of the
agents involved in the team and how they will
cooperate are as explained in section 2.
1.2 Specific Objectives
Dog Training and Interaction. Select and train a
dog for rescue situations. Train the dog for its
interaction with the robot(s). Study the best way for
a successful robot-dog communication. Build some
mock-ups for the Link robot so the training team can
analyse different solutions and configurations and
the dog can get used to it.
Agents Sensorization for the New Rescue
Scenario. Improve the limitations of the actual
Canine Augmentative Technology (CAT) systems
by studying a better distribution of sensors over the
dog. Investigate the best way to sensorize all agents,
dog and robot(s), and combine their sensors.
Give Visual Cognitive Capabilities to the Link
Robot. Localize and track the dog and recognize its
poses and actions. Dogs communicate through
innate responses and through learned signals. Much
can be learned about a dog’s state simply by
observing its body position and activity. Dogs have a
complex set of behaviours related to their social
position relative to other dogs and their physical, as
well as mental states. However, dogs can also learn
to communicate through barking and pose which
makes them ideal for USAR work as they can
roughly “tell” the handler what is going on when
they find something. Moreover the visual scene
interpretation could be used to build a situational
awareness map for the human team.
Build a Collaborative Map of the
Environment. Use different sensors (visual data, IR
information, sensor information) from the CAT
System, and Link robot to build a multi-layer map
useful to have complete information of the
environment from different sources. Give visual
Robot-Dog - Human Interaction in Urban Search and Rescue Scenarios - Improving the Efficiency of Rescue Teams in
Hazardous Environments
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