Most robots are remote-controlled with relatively little autonomy. However, with the development of technology, the path to intelligent analysis of machine tasks becomes obvious. In particular, laboratories and first responders maintain a whole fleet of various robots. The robotics competition at the World Robot Summit 2020 filled the topic with new technologies and demonstrations of technical feasibility. The Disaster Robotics category addresses infrastructure, disaster prevention, and response challenges. It handles particularly complex challenges such as preventing industrial accidents and responding to accidents in tunnels.
The World Robot Summit is a robot Olympiad held in different countries every four years from 2020. The concept of accident prevention in factories is about daily inspections, checks, and emergency response in industrial plants. In this competition, robots must do these missions in a mock factory. The Tunnel Disaster Response and Recovery Concept is an emergency tunnel disaster response and simulation competition. Every team competes to demonstrate their ability to cope with natural disasters by collecting information and removing debris. Challenge Standard Disaster Robotics evaluates the standard robot performance levels required for disaster prevention and emergency response through a competition. To obtain satisfactory results, the participants have to complete three tasks:
- Prevention of accidents at enterprises (in connection with the accident at Fukushima). It includes inspection and maintenance of meters and valves, fault detection and emergency response, piping, tank and duct diagnostics, and general review. For more details about the task, follow the link.
- Disaster Response and Tunnel Recovery - collect information and provide emergency assistance in case of an accident in a tunnel (saving lives, removing obstacles in tunnels). Includes tasks for inspecting and conducting rescue operations in vehicles, providing routing, extinguishing fires, examining walls and minor parts in a tunnel—more details on the link.
- Standard natural disasters' robotics for performance evaluation, wireless communication, remote control in the field, reliability, etc. For more information on the assessment criteria, please follow the link.
Robot Competition is an open innovation method that plays a significant role in shaping technology, public infrastructure and shaping market trends in its infancy. The result is the creation of a technology platform that develops human resources and encourages a change in the mindset of investors, fosters increased user acceptance, and empowers the industrial world to gather broadly practical technology information.