Communications of the ACM
Eu Project Successfully Deploys Robots Following Italy Earthquake
The European Union-sponsored TRADR (Long-Term Human-Robot Teaming for Robot-Assisted Disaster Response) project deployed two Unmanned Ground Vehicles and three Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to assist post-earthquake response in Amatrice, Italy, in August.
Credit: TRADR Project
Following the massive earthquake that struck the Italian town of Amatrice and the surrounding area on Aug. 24, 2016, Italian officials requested the help of the European Union's TRADR project, which quickly deployed two unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to the region.
The team wanted to use the UGVs and UAVs to provide three-dimensional (3D) textured models of two churches in Amatrice.
The project team deployed two UGVs to the San Francesco Church, teleoperating them entirely out of line of sight, with one UGV providing a view of the other one. The arrangement allowed for easy maneuvering in a very constrained space with low connection bandwidth.
One of the UGVs operated in the church continuously for four hours, and a UAV was present for a short time in parallel and provided additional views of the UGVs.
The project team reported entering the building with a UAV was a tough challenge, which was overcome thanks to collaboration between three UAVs operating in parallel.
The mission also fulfilled its goal to collect enough data for the construction of high-quality textured 3D models, which will be used to assess and repair the damaged churches.
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