Flexible Disaster Response of Tomorrow -- Final Presentation and Evaluation of the CENTAURO System

TL;DR

The paper presents the final design, integration, and evaluation of the CENTAURO disaster-response robot system, highlighting its flexible control interfaces and autonomous capabilities for supporting rescue missions.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive disaster-response robot system with advanced control interfaces and provides systematic evaluation insights derived from real-world requirements.

Findings

System demonstrated effective disaster-response capabilities

Control interfaces improved operator situational awareness

Evaluation revealed strengths and areas for improvement

Abstract

Mobile manipulation robots have high potential to support rescue forces in disaster-response missions. Despite the difficulties imposed by real-world scenarios, robots are promising to perform mission tasks from a safe distance. In the CENTAURO project, we developed a disaster-response system which consists of the highly flexible Centauro robot and suitable control interfaces including an immersive tele-presence suit and support-operator controls on different levels of autonomy. In this article, we give an overview of the final CENTAURO system. In particular, we explain several high-level design decisions and how those were derived from requirements and extensive experience of Kerntechnische Hilfsdienst GmbH, Karlsruhe, Germany (KHG). We focus on components which were recently integrated and report about a systematic evaluation which demonstrated system capabilities and revealed valuable insights.