Unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) technology can be used in a number of ways to assist in counter-terrorism activities. In addition to the conventional uses of tele-operated robots for unexploded ordinance handling and disposal, water cannons and other crowd control devices, robots can also be employed for a host of terrorism deterrence and detection applications. In previous research USU developed a completely autonomous prototype robot for performing under- vehicle inspections in parking areas (ODIS). Testing of this prototype and discussions with the user community indicated that neither the technology nor the users are ready for complete autonomy. In this paper we present a robotic system based on ODIS that balances the users' desire/need for tele- operation with a limited level of autonomy that enhances the performance of the robot. The system can be used by both civilian law enforcement and military police to replace the traditional mirror on a stick system of looking under cars for bombs and contraband.

Date Published: 17 July 2002
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 4715, Unmanned Ground Vehicle Technology IV, (17 July 2002); doi: 10.1117/12.474445

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4715:
Unmanned Ground Vehicle Technology IV
Grant R. Gerhart; Chuck M. Shoemaker; Douglas W. Gage, Editor(s)