My name is Guadalupe and I am a first year PhD Student.
My project investigates how a heterogeneous robot team can improve urban search and rescue methods in collapsed buildings caused by earthquakes. Two types of robots compose the team: a vine robot for climbing in narrow, vertical spaces and RESCUE Rollers for general mobility at a minimal cost. The unstructured nature of disaster sites demands diverse robotic capabilities to traverse narrow gaps, navigate fallen rubble, and collectively analyze their environment to provide optimal coverage. Through various simulations and experiments, we evaluate different team compositions and compare trade-offs with regard to cost versus coverage. These experiments highlight the benefits of combining varied robot types to formulate a team that can adapt to the many challenges in unstructured environments. Building on these insights, we will next conduct real life experiments and create navigation policies leveraging the robot team’s collaboration.
Read about my research: Cooperative Exploration with Heterogeneous Robot Teams