Category: ‘Workshops & Meetings’

End-User Symposium in Mestre, Italy

23 March, 2018 Posted by tradr_admin

The End-User Symposium organized by the Italian firefighters (Vigili del Fuoco) took place on March 23 in Mestre, Italy.

The program consisted of presentations on  drone-related activities and Applied Topographic techniques to Rescue activities (TAS).

 

Program:

Robotics and other technologies used in Disaster Response

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 Fire Corp, the Fire Department 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.

Venue: Comando Provinciale Vigili del Fuoco, Strada della Motorizzazione Civile 6, 30174 Mestre Venice, Italy

09:30 – 09.45     Welcome

Fabio DATTILO, CNVVF, Director of the Veneto Region, Italy
Ennio AQUILINO, CNVVF, Local Commander of Venice, Italy

09:45 – 10.05     National Italian Fire Corps Organization – CNVVF and typical aspects of rescue in the venetian territory
Francesco PILO, Lieutenant Colonel, Comando Provinciale Vigili del Fuoco Venezia, CNVVF, Italy

10:05 – 10:30     Using Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems – RPAS in rescue operations of Italian National Fire Corps
Onofrio LORUSSO, Lieutenant Colonel, CNVVF, Air Rescue Coordination Office, Italy

10:30 – 10:55     Applied Topographic techniques to Rescue activities (TAS)
Alessandra BASCIÀ, Lieutenant Colonel, Comando Provinciale Vigili del Fuoco Venezia, CNVVF, Italy

10:55 – 11:10    Coffee break

11:10 – 11:30     Management of large scale events at the Fire Department of Dortmund
Sylvia PRATZLER, Principal Engineer, Feuerwehr Dortmund, Germany

11:30 – 11:50     Unified Fire Department, Rotterdam Port Area
Dominic VAN DE VELDE, Gezamenlijke Brandweer, Rottardam Netherlands

11:50 – 12:10    TRADR project
Ivana KRUIJFF-KORBAYOVÁ, Senior Researcher, DFKI, Germany

12:10 – 13:00    Discussion

13:00-14:00       Lunch

14:00                      End of the day

Workshop on sharing data & other resources for emergency response robotics at ERF

4 March, 2018 Posted by tradr_admin

The premise of the workshop is that there still remains a gap between results obtained in development conditions (by both research and industry) and making the technology truly effective in real environments, addressing the real needs of responders in emergency situations. The goal of the workshop is to discuss measures that will help to bridge the gap, and how to implement them with the engagement of academia, industry and end users. Data sharing can be considered as one such measure. The workshop scope includes also sharing other resources and any other relevant measures that can help improve robot-assisted emergency response capability in Europe.

The Workshop on sharing data and other resources for emergency response robotics will take place

on March 15, 8:30-10:00

during the European Robotics Forum.

Organizers:
Ivana Kruijff-Korbayova, German Institute for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Germany
Hartmut Surmann, Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems IAIS, Germany

Read more.

 

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/

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 SIKS Summerschool 2017, August 21-25 in Utrecht, The Netherlands

21 August, 2017 Posted by tradr_admin

 

An international group of students, postdocs and researchers with interest in the topic of human-robot teaming met in Utrecht on August 21-25 to attend the TRADR/SIKS summer school (https://sites.google.com/view/tradr/home).

The 5-day course covered aspects of teaming and collaboration between humans and robots in multiple domains.

 

Ivana Kruijff-Korbayová (DFKI)

 

 

and Robin Murphy (Texas A&M University)

 

addressed the use of robots in disaster response missions.  Matt Johnson (Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition) presented Coactive Design and interdependence analysis, which help designers understand the impact of design choices on overall system performance when designing advanced and sophisticated human-machine systems. In a similar vein, Mark Neerincx (TNO) presented the situated Cognitive Engineering (sCE) methodology, which provides the ingredients for a systematic integration of human factors into an incremental and iterative development process. David Abbink (Delft University of Technology) shared insights in control using physical interaction through forces, applied in successful prototypes for controlling vehicles and telerobotic arms. Also Pieter Jonker  (Delft University of Technology) shared his rich experience in developing  robots for various applications.  Maj. W.A.Samson (Royal Netherlands Army) and Sgt-Maj. Ben Schaik (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) shared their experiences with deployment of air and ground unmanned vehicles, respectively. The summer school program was rounded off by several practical interactive sessions. This was the fourth and final TRADR summer school.

See also the blogpost by Roland Meertens for further information.