Disaster response is an important area where robotics has to be applied intensively. Residents are sometimes left in rubble piles in destroyed buildings and soils in many natural disasters like earthquakes and landslides. The search-and-rescue process is slow and inefficient because of high-risk and demanding situations. This talk will introduce the achievement of research and development of serpentine robots led by the speaker. Active Scope Camera (ASC) is a soft serpentine robot that adapts its configuration to the complex shape of debris and moves by ciliary vibration drive. It was used at some disaster sites in the world. The new version of the ASC levitates and moves by adding an air-jet drive. Its vision, auditory and tactile sensing capability supports the teleoperation of its long body. Its performance was tested at first responder’s training sites and actual disasters.
Professor Satoshi Tadokoro has been a professor of Graduate School of Information Sciences (GSIS), Tohoku University since 2005, and was a Deputy Dean in 2012-2013, Vice Dean in 2014. In 2012, he joined newly established International Research Institute of Disaster Sciences in Tohoku University. He was Japan Cabinet Office ImPACT Program Manager in 2014-2019. He has been the Director of Tough Cyberphysical AI Research Center since 2019.
He was the project director of MEXT DDT Project on rescue robotics in 2002-2007 having contribution of more than 100 professors nationwide, and NEDO Project that developed a rescue robot Quince which is being used at the Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident since June 2011. He was the project manager of Japan Cabinet Office ImPACT Tough Robotics Challenge Project in 2014-2019. In 2016-17, his serpentine robot, Active Scope Camera was also used for investigation of Fukushima-Daiichi.
Clean water and clean air are vital for public health. This project focuses on developing high-efficiency and environmentally sustainable filters for removing harmful air/water pollutants. The team has developed novel architectures and functionalities for the filters to achieve high permeance, high removal efficiency, and excellent reusability.
