Category: ‘TRADR’

TRADR makes the human-robot interaction community aware of long-term human-robot teaming

27 February, 2018 Posted by tradr_admin

The workshop “Longitudinal Human-Robot Teaming” organized by the TRADR project as part of the annual ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction in Chicago, USA, on March 5 was a great success, attended by more than 40 participants from a broad range of HRI sub-disciplines. The workshop was opened by Ivana Kruijff-Korbayova’s presentation on human-robot teaming from a micro- and macro-perspective as experienced in the TRADR project. This perspective was complemented by the keynote lecture of the world-leading expert on robot-assisted disaster response, Robin Murphy, who advocated an ecological approach to longitudinal human-robot teaming. Contributions from the workshop participants addressed a broad range of topics, reflecting the complexity of this exciting area of research, and raising many open questions for discussion. Several of the participants expressed that the workshop call for papers inspired them to consider the long-term interaction aspects of their ongoing research, and brought exciting new research questions to their attention. There was general consensus that it would be worthwhile to hold a workshop on this topics again in the near future.
More details and program: http://bradhayes.info/hri18/

Amatrice 3D reconstructions datasets are now public

12 February, 2018 Posted by tradr_admin

The TRADR consortium has recently made public some rosbags which were shot inside the churches of San Francesco and Sant Agostino in Amatrice. These rosbags are datasets containing timestamped videos plus additional robot data.

TRADR Technology Day 2017 in Rotterdam

17 November, 2017 Posted by tradr_admin

More than 60 guests from the Netherlands and abroad gathered on the premises of the RDM Congress Center in Rotterdam on November 17 2017 for the TRADR Technology Day. Most of them represented various Firebrigade organizations, several came from robotics companies and some from universities and research institutes. The program of the day consisted of presentations, discussions, a poster session and demonstrations of the TRADR integrated system.

In the introduction about the TRADR project the coordinator Ivana Kruijff-Korbayova explained the TRADR goals, approach and outcomes. She stressed the importance of the close collaboration between researchers and end users in TRADR, which has also enabled the project to deploy its technology in a real disaster response after the earthquake in Amatrice, Italy in 2016.  Presentation

 

Martijn Zagwijn, information management specialist of Firebrigade Twente introduced the drone project he is leading. The drone project provides disaster management support and has been in operation since January 1 2016 after two years of preparations, needed to comply with all regulations. Currently it is being extended to a nation-wide project. Presentation

 

Hauke Speth, head of the Training Department and Institute for Fire and Rescue Technology at City of Dortmund Fire Department reviewed the experiences of the Dortmund Firebrigage with the use of robots in the research projects ANCHORS and TRADR and the ensuing inclusion of a drone as part of their regular incident response capability. He stressed that it is essential that operators be used to deploy the systems in everyday practice, and underlined the importance of collaboration between research, industry and end users in order to advance the use of robots for disaster response. Presentation

During the poster session the TRADR project partners presented their results in a broad range of areas:  learning for exploration, detection and 3D mapping; learning and modelling for terrain perception and robot control; perception and control for manoeuvring and manipulation; multi-robot localisation and change detection; multi-robot autonomous patrolling and exploration; 3D mapping for UAVs; human-robot teamwork modelling; enhancing human-robot team performance with work agreements;  team communication processing; user strategy for tactical command.

The TRADR integrated system was presented in action in a simulated incident response mission enacted at the Deltalinqs training plant. End users from the Gezaamenlijke Brandweer controlled the TRADR ground robots to explore the incident area, locate victims, identify hazard sources and collect samples. The guests could observe the mission progress in the TRADR command post, where they could see how TRADR supports  situation awareness of the team,  and in the field, where they obtained explanations about the robot capabilities, including mapping, autonomous terrain traversal, guided manipulation and multi-robot patrolling and exploration. Since the regulations did not allow the team to fly the TRADR UAVs, the capabilities for UAV 3D mapping and data collection were explained using video material.

During the discussion sessions the participants exchanged experience and opinions about the current and future use of robots in incident response, the obstacles that block robot use and how to overcome them. The representatives of the Dutch Firebrigade organizations used the opportunity to discuss how to synchronize their efforts at the national level.

 

The TRADR Technology Day provided an opportunity for fruitful discussions and establishing new contacts.
We hope that it has made a useful contribution to the future of robot-assisted disaster response. A video from the event can be found here.

 

The event was part of the European Robotics Week 2017. Tweet about the event #ERW2017.

Fourth TRADR Evaluation Exercise

12 November, 2017 Posted by tradr_admin

This year the last TRADR Evaluation exercise (T-Eval) took place in the port of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, from 13 to 16 November 2017. The location was the Deltalinqs training facility, which offers and industrial setting consisting of a maze of pipes, containers, barriers and tanks, thus providing a realistic backdrop for the TRADR scenario.

During the exercise members of the Rotterdam Harbor United Firefighters (the TRADR end-users) used the TRADR system to execute a disaster response mission. Mission objectives included the creation of maps enabling autonomous UGV navigation, multi-robot patrolling and searching for Points of Interest, such as victims, fire, smoke and chemical leakage. Additionally, the robot arm was used to retrieve samples from the hot-zone. Due to improvements of the TRADR system in terms of stability, along with various new and improved functionalities, the firefighters were able to run a large number of sorties as part of the mission. As such the last evaluation exercise was concluded successfully.

 

TRADR Technology Day 2017, November 17th, at RDM Congrescentrum Rotterdam in the Netherlands

26 October, 2017 Posted by tradr_admin

Saarbrücken, 6th October 2017

Dear Sir or Madam,

On behalf of the consortium of the European project TRADR (Long-Term Human-Robot Teaming for Robot Assisted Disaster Response) we are pleased to invite you to participate in the Robot-Assisted Disaster Response Technology Day organized by the Gezamenlijke Brandweer, Netherlands.

The TRADR Technology Day is part of the European Robotics Week.

Date:            17. November 2017

Time:            10:00 to 16:00 (arrival and registration from 9:30)

Venue:         Congrescentrum, Heijplaatstraat 17-23, 3089 JB Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Topics:         Robotics and AI technology use in disaster response: research, system development and practical experience

Real disaster response is time-critical and extremely stressful: the use of robots functioning as proper team members has the potential to reduce the workload and the stress of the humans and to take over dangerous tasks.

TRADR develops technology for human-robot teams to assist in disaster response efforts, using ground and air robots, in realistic missions spanning multiple days. We address a range of issues, from motion, navigation and mapping in complex changing environments, to human-robot team mission management support. End-users, first responders from the Italian Firecorps, the Firebrigade of the City of Dortmund in Germany and Gezamenlijke Brandweer in the Netherlands, are involved in the TRADR development cycle, from design to prototype testing. They provide input and feedback, experience the technology and become aware of its potential and current limitations, to in the end facilitate its uptake.

During the Technology Day we will show our achievements and share insights gained during the 4 years of the project, including experience from the TRADR deployment in Amatrice, Italy, shortly after the earthquake in 2016, as well as the industrial use case experiments carried out in 2016 in Dortmund and in 2017 in Rotterdam. The program will consist of presentations and posters on TRADR scientific results and practical experience with the use of robots, a demonstration of the TRADR integrated system and panel discussion. The Technology Day is intended for a broad range of stakeholders including industry, end users from firebrigades and other responders, academia as well as interested general public.

To register for the event and for more information please click here.
Please register online at your earliest convenience as we will close registration upon reaching our maximum capacity.
The participation is free of charge.

Accommodation: We recommend the Hotel Bastion Rotterdam Zuid that is located near the venue.

Location: googlemaps:

Public transportation: please see here.

If you have other questions, please send an email to: technologyday@dfki.de

Thank you for your interest and looking forward to welcoming you on November 17th.

Dr. Ivana Kruijff-Korbayová
TRADR Project Coordinator