Development of two rescue robots for disaster relief operations in narrow debris

This paper proposes two novel rescue robots, including a cutter robot and a jack robot, which are aimed to contribute to rescue activities such as to cut through obstacles and to jack up debris in dangerous sites and narrow spaces, where a rescue team can not work or approach. Firstly, a multi-linked tracked rescue robot platform composed of connected crawler vehicles is developed, which has high mobility on irregular terrain and ability to move into narrow collapsed structures. Then, the cutter robot and jack robot are designed on the basis of rescue robot platform equipped with a cutter or a jack mechanism and corresponding manipulators in the front segment. The cutter refitted by an angle grinder is able to cut through 10 mm diameter steel bars. The electric jack mechanism designed based on multiple layers screw sleeves structure can lift up 300 kg load from 70 mm to 400 mm. Experimental results validate the capability of the two rescue robots.