Disaster Robotics Results from the

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Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics 128

Satoshi Tadokoro Editor

Disaster
Robotics
Results from the ImPACT Tough Robotics
Challenge
Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics
Series editors
Prof. Bruno Siciliano
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica
e Tecnologie dell’Informazione
Università degli Studi di Napoli
Federico II
Via Claudio 21, 80125 Napoli
Italy
E-mail: siciliano@unina.it
128
Prof. Oussama Khatib
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Department of Computer Science
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-9010
USA
E-mail: khatib@cs.stanford.edu
Editorial Advisory Board

Nancy Amato, Texas A&M University, USA

Oliver Brock, TU Berlin, Germany
Herman Bruyninckx, KU Leuven, Belgium
Wolfram Burgard, University Freiburg, Germany
Raja Chatila, ISIR—UPMC & CNRS, France
Francois Chaumette, INRIA Rennes—Bretagne Atlantique, France
Wan Kyun Chung, POSTECH, Korea
Peter Corke, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Paolo Dario, Scuola S. Anna Pisa, Italy
Alessandro De Luca, Sapienza University Rome, Italy
Rüdiger Dillmann, University Karlsruhe, Germany
Ken Goldberg, UC Berkeley, USA
John Hollerbach, University Utah, USA
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S. E. Salcudean, University British Columbia, Canada
Roland Siegwart, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Gaurav S. Sukhatme, University Southern California, USA

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/5208

Satoshi Tadokoro
Editor

Disaster Robotics
Results from the ImPACT Tough Robotics
Challenge

123
Editor
Satoshi Tadokoro
Graduate School of Information Sciences
Tohoku University
Sendai, Japan

ISSN 1610-7438 ISSN 1610-742X (electronic)

Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics
ISBN 978-3-030-05320-8 ISBN 978-3-030-05321-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05321-5

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To the victims of disasters
Preface

The ImPACT Tough Robotics Challenge (ImPACT-TRC) is a national project

funded by the Japan Cabinet Office from 2014 to 2018. It focuses on research and
development of robot technologies for emergency response, disaster recovery, and
damage prevention. This book introduces the major outcomes of this project.
Japan experienced enormous damage from the Great East Japan Earthquake and
the subsequent Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident in 2011.
ImPACT-TRC organized a Field Evaluation Forum which brought together more
than 500 participants in one of the stricken cities, Minami-Soma City, on June 14,
2018. The city has not yet recovered from the damage. An old chef from the
restaurant where I had dinner told me, “My children and grandchildren would never
come back. My family has been separated. I cannot expect the small happiness of
my family anymore.”
In 2011, I donated three units of an unmanned ground vehicle called Quince to
the Tokyo Electric Power Company for investigation in the nuclear reactor build-
ings of the Fukushima Daiichi as the first national robot used there. Quince was
being developed by a consortium of Tohoku University, the Chiba Institute of
Technology (CIT), and the International Rescue System Institute (IRS) in a project
funded by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization
(NEDO). The decision of the donation was based on the fear that the reactors would
not be stabilized and the contamination might spread further. “If that would become
the case, we would not be able to live in Sendai, which is situated 100 km from the
plant, and possibly in Tokyo or potentially all over Japan,” the team members
considered. The original target of Quince was completely independent from such
nuclear accidents, and we did not have any duty on this mission apparently. I really
thank Prof. Eiji Koyanagi and Dr. Seiga Kiribayashi, who worked at CIT at that
time, and Profs. Keiji Nagatani, Kazunori Ohno, and Yoshito Okada of Tohoku
University, for their devoted contribution.
I started researching into rescue robotics in 1995 when I experienced the Great
Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. Mr. Satoshi Fuji, who was a student of mine at Kobe
University, was buried under his house and was rescued after four hours. The
doctor initially told his parents, “He suffers from crush syndrome, and has no

vii
viii Preface

chance of survival. You have to give up.” He is lucky that he is still alive. Mr.
Motohiro Kisoi, a student of Prof. Fumitoshi Matsuno, passed away under the
debris. An American football player in the Kobe University team found a young
lady after hearing her voice from under a floor. He removed the tatami mats and the
planks from the wooden floor plates again and again, and finally found her. He tried
to drag her body out from the debris but he could not, despite his strength, because
her leg was trapped. A fire broke out and began to spread to his house. She asked
him to cut off her leg to save her, but he was unable to do so, and he was forced to
flee from the fire. “I left her to die…,” he said. His voice has been echoing in my
mind periodically since then.
When I led the DDT Project of the Japan Ministry of Education, young fire-
fighters in the Kobe Fire Department came to the Kobe Laboratory of the
International Rescue System Institute in 2003 to learn about rescue robots.
I remember our heated discussion on how robots can help search and rescue in the
future, what is needed, the conditions at disaster sites, the firefighters’ mission, and
so on. A few weeks later, I watched a TV news story reporting that four firefighters
had died in Kobe when a burning roof caved in on them. I was surprised to see their
names. One of the four was a firefighter whom I had met at the laboratory. I still
remember his young wife weeping as she held a newborn baby at his funeral.
What is our most important value for us? My personal opinion: human life.
The mission of the ImPACT-TRC is to develop technologies for saving lives and
minimizing the damages from disasters for the safety and security of humanity. As
the program manager, I am delighted to see that this 5-year project has produced
various world’s firsts, world’s bests, and world-class technical innovations. At the
same time, it is producing social and industrial innovations.
The research members have compiled overviews of the technical and scientific
results into this book. I recommend the readers to explore the original papers listed
in the references for more details.
I especially want to thank the researchers who have been collaborating together
to produce such excellent outcomes. The contributions of the Japan Cabinet Office,
the Japan Science and Technology Agency, the International Rescue System
Institute, Tohoku University, and other participating persons and organizations
have been significant.
Hoping for more safety and security supported by robotics.

Sendai, Japan Satoshi Tadokoro

October 2018 Professor, Tohoku University
President, International Rescue System Institute
Program Manager, ImPACT Tough Robotics Challenge
Contents

Part I Introduction and Overview

1 Overview of the ImPACT Tough Robotics Challenge
and Strategy for Disruptive Innovation in Safety
and Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Satoshi Tadokoro

Part II Disaster Response and Recovery

2 ImPACT-TRC Thin Serpentine Robot Platform
for Urban Search and Rescue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Masashi Konyo, Yuichi Ambe, Hikaru Nagano, Yu Yamauchi,
Satoshi Tadokoro, Yoshiaki Bando, Katsutoshi Itoyama,
Hiroshi G. Okuno, Takayuki Okatani, Kanta Shimizu and Eisuke Ito
3 Recent R&D Technologies and Future Prospective
of Flying Robot in Tough Robotics Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Kenzo Nonami, Kotaro Hoshiba, Kazuhiro Nakadai, Makoto Kumon,
Hiroshi G. Okuno, Yasutada Tanabe, Koichi Yonezawa,
Hiroshi Tokutake, Satoshi Suzuki, Kohei Yamaguchi,
Shigeru Sunada, Takeshi Takaki, Toshiyuki Nakata, Ryusuke Noda,
Hao Liu and Satoshi Tadokoro
4 Cyber-Enhanced Rescue Canine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Kazunori Ohno, Ryunosuke Hamada, Tatsuya Hoshi,
Hiroyuki Nishinoma, Shumpei Yamaguchi, Solvi Arnold,
Kimitoshi Yamazaki, Takefumi Kikusui, Satoko Matsubara,
Miho Nagasawa, Takatomi Kubo, Eri Nakahara, Yuki Maruno,
Kazushi Ikeda, Toshitaka Yamakawa, Takeshi Tokuyama,
Ayumi Shinohara, Ryo Yoshinaka, Diptarama Hendrian,
Kaizaburo Chubachi, Satoshi Kobayashi, Katsuhito Nakashima,
Hiroaki Naganuma, Ryu Wakimoto, Shu Ishikawa, Tatsuki Miura
and Satoshi Tadokoro

ix
x Contents

5 Dual-Arm Construction Robot with Remote-Control

Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Hiroshi Yoshinada, Keita Kurashiki, Daisuke Kondo, Keiji Nagatani,
Seiga Kiribayashi, Masataka Fuchida, Masayuki Tanaka,
Atsushi Yamashita, Hajime Asama, Takashi Shibata,
Masatoshi Okutomi, Yoko Sasaki, Yasuyoshi Yokokohji,
Masashi Konyo, Hikaru Nagano, Fumio Kanehiro,
Tomomichi Sugihara, Genya Ishigami, Shingo Ozaki,
Koich Suzumori, Toru Ide, Akina Yamamoto, Kiyohiro Hioki,
Takeo Oomichi, Satoshi Ashizawa, Kenjiro Tadakuma,
Toshi Takamori, Tetsuya Kimura, Robin R. Murphy
and Satoshi Tadokoro

Part III Preparedness for Disaster

6 Development of Tough Snake Robot Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Fumitoshi Matsuno, Tetsushi Kamegawa, Wei Qi, Tatsuya Takemori,
Motoyasu Tanaka, Mizuki Nakajima, Kenjiro Tadakuma,
Masahiro Fujita, Yosuke Suzuki, Katsutoshi Itoyama,
Hiroshi G. Okuno, Yoshiaki Bando, Tomofumi Fujiwara
and Satoshi Tadokoro
7 WAREC-1 – A Four-Limbed Robot with Advanced
Locomotion and Manipulation Capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Kenji Hashimoto, Takashi Matsuzawa, Xiao Sun,
Tomofumi Fujiwara, Xixun Wang, Yasuaki Konishi, Noritaka Sato,
Takahiro Endo, Fumitoshi Matsuno, Naoyuki Kubota, Yuichiro Toda,
Naoyuki Takesue, Kazuyoshi Wada, Tetsuya Mouri,
Haruhisa Kawasaki, Akio Namiki, Yang Liu, Atsuo Takanishi
and Satoshi Tadokoro

Part IV Component Technologies

8 New Hydraulic Components for Tough Robots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
Koichi Suzumori, Hiroyuki Nabae, Ryo Sakurai, Takefumi Kanda,
Sang-Ho Hyon, Tohru Ide, Kiyohiro Hioki, Kazu Ito, Kiyoshi Inoue,
Yoshiharu Hirota, Akina Yamamoto, Takahiro Ukida,
Ryusuke Morita, Morizo Hemmi, Shingo Ohno, Norihisa Seno,
Hayato Osaki, Shoki Ofuji, Harutsugu Mizui, Yuki Taniai,
Sumihito Tanimoto, Shota Asao, Ahmad Athif Mohd Faudzi,
Yohta Yamamoto and Satoshi Tadokoro
9 Simulator for Disaster Response Robotics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
Fumio Kanehiro, Shin’ichiro Nakaoka, Tomomichi Sugihara,
Naoki Wakisaka, Genya Ishigami, Shingo Ozaki
and Satoshi Tadokoro
Contents xi

Part V Evaluation and Human Factors

10 Field Evaluation and Safety Management of ImPACT
Tough Robotics Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481
Tetsuya Kimura, Toshi Takamori, Raymond Sheh, Yoshio Murao,
Hiroki Igarashi, Yudai Hasumi, Toshiro Houshi
and Satoshi Tadokoro
11 User Interfaces for Human-Robot Interaction
in Field Robotics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507
Robin R. Murphy and Satoshi Tadokoro
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529
 Part I
Introduction and Overview
Chapter 1
Overview of the ImPACT Tough Robotics
Challenge and Strategy for Disruptive
Innovation in Safety and Security

Satoshi Tadokoro

Abstract The ImPACT Tough Robotics Challenge (ImPACT-TRC) is a national

project of the Japan Cabinet Office (2014–2018, 62 PIs and 300 researchers, 30
MUSD/5 years) that focuses on tough robotic technologies to provide solutions to
disaster response, recovery, and preparedness. It consists of sub-projects of six types
of robot platforms and several component technologies integrated with the robots.
One of them is the Cyber Rescue Canine suits for monitoring dogs’ behavior and com-
manding their movement, which has shown high effectiveness in regular exercises
of the Japan Rescue Dog Association. Another platform is a new serpentine robot,
Active Scope Camera, which can crawl and levitate in gaps of a few cm to search in
rubble piles. Structural assessment and radiation measurement were performed by
this robot in Fukushima-Daiichi from December 2016 to February 2017. The other
serpentine robots showed high mobility in ducts, in and out of pipes, on uneven ter-
rain, and on vertical ladders, and climbed a 1-m-high step by a 1.7-m-long body. The
Omni Gripper can grasp a wide variety of targets, even with sharp edges, without
the need for precise control by using the jamming phenomenon. The robust flight of
a new drone, PF-1 under difficult conditions contributed to the response operations
in the Northern Kyushu Heavy Rain Disaster by gathering high-resolution images
of inaccessible areas in July 2017. The WAREC-1 can move on four legs or on two
legs, or crawl, and can climb vertical ladders as well. The Construction Robot has a
double-swing dual-arm mechanism, operator assistance by bird’s-eye view images
created by a drone and multiple cameras, and assistance by force and touch feed-
back. It can perform both high-power tasks and precise tasks remotely. All of these
technologies have been demonstrated at the Field Evaluation Forums, which have
been organized twice a year since the beginning of the project. These forums have
promoted the communication between researchers, production companies, service
providers, and users in order to achieve disruptive innovation not only in technology
but also in industry and society.

S. Tadokoro (B)
JST/Tohoku University, 6-6-01 Aramaki-Aza-Aoba, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8579, Japan
e-mail: tadokoro@rm.is.tohoku.ac.jp

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 3

S. Tadokoro (ed.), Disaster Robotics, Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics 128,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05321-5_1
4 S. Tadokoro

1.1 Challenge of Disaster Robotics

Our human society faces a serious threat from natural and man-made disasters that
have frequently occurred in recent times. Robots are expected to be an advanced
solution for information gathering and disaster response actions. However, there are
important issues associated with robots that must be solved for achieving sufficient
performance in the disaster situations and for their deployment in responder stations.
The three expected functions of disaster robots are (1) to assist workers in performing
difficult tasks, (2) to reduce human risks, and (3) to reduce cost and to improve effi-
ciency, of the three activities: emergency response operations right after the outbreak
of disasters, such as search and rescue; damage recovery, such as that of construction
works; and damage prevention, such as daily inspection.
However, many robot technologies require certain environmental conditions for
achieving good performance. They are fully functional in factories and offices
because an adequate environment is set up. However, they cannot work in disas-
ter environments that are extreme and unforeseen. We may call the current robotics
a spineless honor guy.
ImPACT is a strategic political investment of the Japan Cabinet Office to solve
specific social problems. The ImPACT Tough Robotics Challenge (ImPACT-TRC),
as one of the ImPACT projects, aims at making the robotics tougher so that they can
function under difficult situations. It challenges to ease the necessary conditions for
robotics to work in disaster.
The ImPACT-TRC started at the end of 2014 and will finish in March, 2019. 62
research groups form five working groups and two research committees. It shows the
research progress being made to general public at the ImPACT-TRC Field Evaluation
Forums, which are held twice a year.
This chapter introduces the innovation that this project is targeting, the approach
to realize this goal, and an overview of the major achievements at the time of writing.

1.2 Five Types of Robots

The Council on Competitiveness-Nippon (COCN) established the Disaster Robot

Project after the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake to analyze the needs and issues
of disaster robots. More than 50 companies, universities, and research institutes
intensively collaborated to draw the roadmaps shown in Table 1.1.
This project investigated various possible situations caused by seven types of
disasters. It clarified the necessary functions and performance, current levels, techni-
cal problems, implementation problems, future perspective, evaluation metrics and
methods, and strategy for social use. It included regulations and social systems on
the use of drones, allocation of wireless frequencies for disaster robots, standard
performance test methods and test fields, anti-explosion methodologies and its stan-
dardization, and a parts database, and technology catalogues. The Japan Government
has institutionalized many of them.
1 Overview of the ImPACT Tough Robotics Challenge and Strategy … 5

Table 1.1 Roadmaps drawn by the council on competitiveness-Nippon (COCN)

Year Roadmap
2011 Robots for nuclear accident response and decommissioning
2012 Robots for general disaster response, recovery and prevention
2013 Performance evaluation, technology database, and center for disaster response robots

Fig. 1.1 Image of research goals of the ImPACT Tough Robotics Challenge

The research plan of the ImPACT Tough Robotics Challenge is one of the results
of the analysis and discussions of this project.
Figure 1.1 shows an image of the goals of the ImPACT-TRC. This project
researches into five types of robots: aerial robots, serpentine robots, construction
robots, legged robots, and Cyber Rescue Canine suits, as well as component tech-
nologies onboard and on the network.
This project focuses on the following technical issues to make the robots tougher.
1. Accessibility in extreme environment
Accessibility to and in the site is limited in a disaster environment. Various issues
need to be solved as a system in order to achieve the high accessibility. They
include mobility and actuation for mechanical movement, sensing, human inter-
faces, and robot intelligence for robot autonomy and operators’ situation aware-
ness.
2. Sensing in an extreme environment
Sensing of a situation is difficult in a disaster environment. For example, sight
under darkness, fog, rain, direct sunlight, inverse light and fire is needed. Hearing
under external noise and the sound produced by the robot motion is required.
3. Recovery from task failure
Recovery from failure is necessary in order to complete a task. The entire task
may fail even if one part of a robot component does not work well. Recovery
is possible only in the cases when all the failure modes have been known and
their countermeasures are planned beforehand. However, in the disaster fields, a
6 S. Tadokoro

robot must be able to return even if one of its motors does not work. Similarly,
the robot’s position must be estimated even if its localization module temporarily
fails.
4. Compatibility with extreme conditions
Robot technologies sometimes do not work in tough disaster environments. The
necessary conditions of the robot technologies must be eased so that the robots
can work in disaster response and recovery.

1.3 Use Scenario

Figure 1.2 shows a use scenario of robots.

Emergency response is crucial during the acute phase immediately after the out-
break of disasters. Information gathering and analysis is needed to aid decision
making at the disaster management center and at the on-site operations coordina-
tion centers. The aerial vehicles, PF-1, assume an important role in the first stage
of surveillance for gathering overview information of the disaster in critical areas
where damage might occur. The advantages of the PF-1 are that they are robust under

Fig. 1.2 Use scenario of the robot systems in the timeline before and after the outbreak of a disaster.
The arrow indicates time, and the blue labels show the transition of disaster phases. The yellow
boxes represent missions, and the black words represent users. The robots are shown in red. Green
text explains the difficult tasks and conditions. The performance metrics are written in purple
1 Overview of the ImPACT Tough Robotics Challenge and Strategy … 7

bad weather conditions, fly at night when manned helicopters cannot fly, and create
less noise in order to avoid obstructing survivor search. The Cyber Rescue Canine
suit provides capabilities of monitoring and guidance of rescue dogs during survivor
search operations under debris of collapsed buildings and landslides. The serpentine
robot, Active Scope Camera, is used for investigating situation in debris and search-
ing for survivors. They need high mobility and recognition capability in the debris
environments. Urgent recovery construction work at risky sites is supported by the
Construction Robot, which has both high power and preciseness, as well as good
situational awareness of the operators.
Preparation before the outbreak is important for preventing damage. For example,
inspection of infrastructure and industrial facilities is needed. Robots can reduce the
cost and risk of the inspection task by supporting or substituting human workers.
Serpentine robots are used in the inspection of pipes and ducts of plants where
conventional tools are not useful. Legged robots are used for surveillance of risky
areas where humans cannot enter.
These robots have to be deployed in the disaster prevention organizations and
companies so that these tasks can be achieved. It is important that the responders and
workers practice well in order ensure skilled use of the robots. In emergencies, robot
engineers are of no use. The robots must be ready immediately when the responders
arrive at the mission site.
Figure 1.3 shows an example of the goals of the ImPACT Tough Robotics Chal-
lenge in the case of large-scale earthquake disasters. The information gathering,

Fig. 1.3 Robotics needs and potential contributions of the ImPACT Tough Robotics Challenge in
emergency response in earthquake disasters
8 S. Tadokoro

Fig. 1.4 Robotics needs and potential contribution of the ImPACT Tough Robotics Challenge in
plant inspection and damage prevention

search and rescue, and construction are needed at emergency response sites as shown
in the blue boxes. Advanced equipment such as drones, rescue dogs, video scopes,
and remote construction machines are being used at present. However, as shown in
the red boxes, drones have a risk of fall and crash, although they are effective for rapid
information gathering. Fragility under heavy rain and wind is also a serious problem.
Rescue canines can effectively search survivors by smell, but they do not bark only
when they sense survivors; they may bark for other various reasons. Handlers have
to stay near the dogs because they may lose their locations when they go far away to
search survivors. Video scopes are used for searching survivors in confined spaces of
debris. They cannot be inserted deep into large debris, and it is difficult to estimate
their position in an occluded space. Remote construction machines are effective for
construction at risky sites. However, they cannot move in difficult terrain such as
steep slopes, and their efficiency and accuracy are inferior to manned machines.
As the green boxes show, the ImPACT-TRC aims at solving such difficulties in
disaster environments so that robots become useful for emergency response and
recovery after the occurrence of a disaster.
Figures 1.4 and 1.5 respectively show the case study of the response to the
Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident, and of the application to plant
inspection.
Based on the above analysis, the goals and the objectives of each robot were
determined as follows.
1 Overview of the ImPACT Tough Robotics Challenge and Strategy … 9

Fig. 1.5 Robotics needs and potential contribution of the ImPACT Tough Robotics Challenge in
the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant accident

1. Cyber Rescue Canine

Implementation: Drastic improvement in rescue dog’s efficiency by a Cyber
Rescue Canine suit, and deployment in rescue parties across the world.
Project Goal: Development of Cyber Rescue Canine suits for monitoring,
mapping, commanding, and estimating dogs’ behavior and conditions. Train-
ing with the Japan Rescue Dog Association and potential users for raising the
Technology Readiness Level (TRL) according to their feedback.
2. Serpentine Robots

Implementation: Use in debris and narrow complex parts of facilities for

search and rescue, investigation, and inspection.
Project Goal: Achieve mobility in debris where access is difficult such as in
collapsed houses, in complex industrial facilities with complex pipes and
equipment, and in houses on fire. Measurement, communication, recognition,
and mapping of situations for assisting search and rescue, inspection and
extinguishment.

3. Legged Robot
Implementation: Development of practical technologies for legged robots for
investigation and inspection in damaged facilities at risk.
10 S. Tadokoro

Project Goal: Achieve mobility in facilities, such as climbing stairs and ladders
up and down; performing non-destructive inspection, such as ultrasonic flaw
detection; and performing repair tasks, such as boring using a hammer drill
or opening/closing valves.
4. Aerial Robot

Implementation: Development of new services by the tough aerial robots supe-

rior to robots in the past.
Project Goal: Achieve robust flight under difficult conditions, such as heavy
rain (100 mm/h) and wind (15 m/s), and navigation near obstacles (dis-
tance: 30 cm). Assistance for task execution by measurement, communica-
tion, recognition, and mapping of situations.

5. Construction Robot

Implementation: Improvement of efficiency and safety of tasks of disas-

ter recovery tasks, mine development, and urban construction by remote/
autonomous dual arms.
Project Goal: Achieve mobility that has been impossible by conventional
remote autonomous construction machines such as traversing gaps and climb-
ing slopes, and assistance for execution of heavy but dexterous tasks using
both arms.

ImPACT-TRC is different from curiosity-driven fundamental research programs

such as the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research sponsored by the Ministry of Educa-
tion, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. It was planned by conducting
a backtracking analysis of the problems to reveal what should be done so that the
research results are used in our society and effective solutions are provided for dis-
ruptive innovation. Therefore, the evaluation metric is not the number of research
papers published with extensive references but the impact that the research has on
our society and industry.

1.4 Disruptive Innovations

ImPACT is a political research and development project planned by the Japan Cabinet
Office as a part of its development strategies. It aims at creating disruptive innovations
for Japan’s revival.
The ImPACT-TRC targets at the following three disruptive innovations that should
be promoted for solving this serious social problem of disasters.

1. Technical Disruptive Innovation

To create tough technologies that are effective for difficult disaster situations,
five types of robot platforms and payload technologies are developed, and their
1 Overview of the ImPACT Tough Robotics Challenge and Strategy … 11

Fig. 1.6 Problems of technology cycle in the disaster robotics field, and contribution of the ImPACT
Tough Robotics Challenge for innovation

effectiveness are verified at Field Evaluation Forums using simulated disaster

environments to establish the tough robotics.
2. Social Disruptive Innovation
To contribute to the advancement of damage prevention, emergency response,
and damage recovery of disasters, it provides robotic solutions and fundamentals
for minimizing damage by assisting information gathering and mission execution
under extreme conditions.
3. Industrial Disruptive Innovation
To propagate the tough fundamental technologies to outdoor field industries, it
provides an environment for the creation of new business related to its com-
ponents, systems, and services. Application of the technologies to businesses
promotes a technology cycle of disaster robotics.

Disaster robotics has a high social demand. However, it is not driven by an estab-
lished market and is not economically self-sustained. Its market size is small. There-
fore, the field of disaster robotics has the following problems, as shown in Fig. 1.6.
Disaster robotics has the fundamental issue of how to fuel the necessary technology
cycle and how to create the needed disruption innovation.
12 S. Tadokoro

1. Industries
Disaster robots are procured by governments and local governments, and the
market is based on governmental policy. The market size is small and the products
do not have enough volume efficiency. Robots need the integration of a wide
variety of technologies, and the cost of their development and maintenance is
high.
2. Users
Users do not have enough knowledge and awareness of what robots can do, and
what limitation they have. Users’ budget of procurement is limited regarding
disaster robots.
3. General Public
The general public has recognized the necessity of disaster robots. In some cases,
their expectations are too high, and in other cases, they have negative opinions
with groundless biases.
4. Researchers and Developers
The problems related to disasters are technically difficult, and the capability of
disaster robots is not sufficient. The technologies are not directly connected with
the market. Universities usually challenge such problems, but the researchers
occasionally do not focus on real use cases considering actual conditions and
requirements, although these are the most important technical challenges in this
field.

For these reasons, the technology cycle has deadlocked, and the innovation rate
for disruptive technologies has not been sufficiently fast.
In order to resolve this discrepancy, the ImPACT-TRC offers the following.
1. Industries
The research results are widely introduced and demonstrated to the industry in
realistic situations. This opens the way for industry to utilize them for new busi-
ness, and for new solutions to current problems. This integrates the market of
disaster robotics with the large business markets.
2. Users
Disaster robotics is explained to the actual and potential users through tests con-
ducted at simulated disaster situations, by applying them to real disasters, and by
asking for user evaluation, so that users recognize the capabilities and limitations
of the robots. Collaborative improvement of robot capabilities leads procurement
and deployment of disaster robotics.
3. General Public
Open demonstration of R&D progress and results is performed. It promotes the
general public’s recognition and understanding.
4. Researchers and Developers
The research field is established. It forms a good environment where researchers
can study into disaster robotics. Evaluation metrics are developed by user-oriented
research and collaboration with users and industries.
1 Overview of the ImPACT Tough Robotics Challenge and Strategy … 13

The technology catalogue is published periodically. It shows the following infor-

mation of research outcomes from the viewpoint of the users by following the New
Technology Information System (NETIS), a database of the Ministry of Land, Infras-
tructure and Transportation of Japan (MLIT) for procurement.

Search Items: Disaster category, task, portability, technology category, use envi-
ronment, and past use case.
Fundamental Information: Name, functions, performance, photos, size, weight,
date of development, research project, and contact information.

1.5 Field Evaluation Forum

The outcome of this project is evaluated and demonstrated at the Field Evaluation
Forum (FEF) that was organized twice a year both outdoors and indoors at Tohoku
University from 2015 to 2017, and twice a year outdoors at Fukushima Robot Test
Field (Fukushima RTF) in 2018. It consists of open demonstrations and closed eval-
uations. In the open part, the robots and technologies are tested for demonstration
in front of a general audience using mock collapsed debris and industrial facilities.
At the closed part, new risky and fragile technologies are tested, and researchers are
provided with feedback from specialists and users.
Figure 1.7 shows pictures taken at the FEF at Fukushima RTF on June 11, 2018.
The results of each FEF are summarized by movies on YouTube ImPACT Tough
Robotics Challenge channel [1–5].
The objectives of the FEF are summarized as below.

1. Researchers and Developers

• To enhance their motivation by showing their own research progress and
watching the others’ research progress as hands-on demonstrations.
• To listen to users for opinions and evaluations, which are valuable for adjusting
research directions.
• To promote integration of component technologies into the platforms.

Fig. 1.7 Field evaluation forum

14 S. Tadokoro

• To understand other research results to extend systems through new research

cooperation.
• To nurture the mind, thus providing not only their own research results of a
limited scale, but also the big synthetic solutions applicable to real cases.
• To advertise excellent research outcomes widely and internationally to foster
young researchers’ reputation for their future.
2. Users
• To understand the robots’ capabilities and limitations by watching the moving
research results.
• To support procurement, deployment, and future planning.
• To find expert partners for seeking advice on robotics and related technologies.
3. Industries
• To gain insight into new business opportunities by watching actually working
(and not working) technologies in real systems.
• To find opportunities for testing, collaborative research, and technical advice
in order to solve their own problems, or to start new business.
4. General Public
• To feel the future safety and security technologies for damage prevention,
emergency response, and recovery by watching robots in action.
At the FEF on November 11, 2017, a synthetic demonstration was performed by
assuming the following earthquake disaster scenario.

1. Initial Information Gathering, Transportation of Emergency Goods

• A number of collapsed houses and landslides are observed. The whole situation
is not known.
• The emergency management center and on-site operations coordination cen-
ters (OSSOC) open.
• The aerial robots autonomously fly to gather wide-area information by speci-
fying a route plan.
• Ortho-images and 3D images are generated from the photos taken by the aerial
robots.
• An aerial robot transports emergency medicine.
2. Road Clearance
• The OSSOC plans emergency actions including search & rescue, road clear-
ance, debris removal, etc.
• Construction robots cut and remove obstacles.
3. Search for Survivors
• Automatic finding of personal effects of survivors is carried out by a Cyber
Rescue Canine unit.
1 Overview of the ImPACT Tough Robotics Challenge and Strategy … 15

• The Cyber Rescue Canine unit finds survivors, and shares the information
with the OSSOC.
4. Rescue of Survivors
• The Active Scope Camera, a serpentine robot, investigates the inside of the
debris, hears the voice of a survivor, and identifies the position.
• Firefighters enter the debris, rescue the survivors, and transfers them to the
medical facilities.

The above-mentioned research strategy of the ImPACT-TRC was in success for

the open innovation for the technical, social and industrial disruptive outcomes as a
driving force.

1.6 Major Research Achievements

Research conducted over 3.5 years have produced outstanding outcomes, some of
which are the world’s first, the world’s best, and the world class, as listed up below.
Note that the world’s first and the world’s best are shown based on the author’s knowl-
edge in this domain at the moment of writing, and might include misunderstandings
due to ignorance. These projects used various methods in robotics including soft
robotics and deep learning.

1. Cyber Rescue Canine

• Cyber Rescue Canine suit that monitors and commands a dog’s behavior.
(World’s First)
• A non-invasive method of commanding the dog to perform an action. (World’s
First)
• Lightweight suit by which the dog does not feel fatigue. (World’s Best)
• Visual 3D self-localization and mapping using rapidly moving images taken
by the onboard cameras. (World’s Best)
• Estimation of emotion, including willingness, by the dog’s heartbeat and accel-
eration. (World’s Best)
• Estimation of the dog’s movement and action. (World’s Best)
• Remote onboard image transfer.
• Automatic discovery of personal effects.
• Frequent regular exercise with the Japan Rescue Dog Association.
2. Serpentine Robots (Thin)
• New Active Scope Camera, a serpentine robot to investigate inside debris by
moving and levitating in gaps of a few centimeters. (World’s First)
• Levitation of the serpentine body to get over debris obstacles. (World’s First)
• Dragon Firefighter, a flying robot extinguishing hose (Fig. 1.8). (World’s First)
16 S. Tadokoro

Fig. 1.8 Dragon Firefighter prototype 3 m long at field evaluation forum on June 14, 2018

• Sound processing for hearing survivors’ voice in debris by removing noise.

(World’s First)
• Realtime estimation of shape of the snake body by audition. (World’s First)
• Remote control with tactile sensing for the body surface. (World’s First)
• Visual 3D self-localization and mapping in narrow spaces, with rapid pose
change and moving lighting in the small body sizes. (World’s Best)
• Fast motion in pipes by pneumatic actuation for anti-explosion.
• Automatic recognition of goods and discovery of personal effects in debris.
• Use of the Active Scope Camera for investigation in Fukushima-Daiichi
Nuclear Power Plant.
3. Serpentine Robots (Thick)
• Climbing up and down ladders. (World’s First)
• Motion in and out of pipes, ducts, and on rough terrain.
• Omni-Gripper, a soft robot hand that can grasp, push, and hook a wide variety
of objects even with sharp edges like knives without precise control (Fig. 1.9).
(World’s First)
• Climbing a step 1 m high by a body 1.7 m long (Fig. 1.9). (World’s Best)
• Self-localization and mapping in pipes.
• Sensor sheet for distributed tactile and proximity sensing on the body surface.
• Testing at actual and simulated industrial plants.
4. Legged Robot
1 Overview of the ImPACT Tough Robotics Challenge and Strategy … 17

Fig. 1.9 Wheel-type Serpentine Robot and Omni-Gripper at field evaluation forum on June 14,
2018

Fig. 1.10 Legged Robot and Construction Robot at field evaluation forum on June 14, 2018

• Four-legged robot that can move in a plant and perform inspection remotely
and autonomously (Fig. 1.10).
• Robot hands of 30-cm size that can keep grasping 50-kg objects without
electricity. (World’s First)
• Opening and closing valve with torque 100-Nm by a legged robot. (World
Class)
• Moving in four legs, in two legs, or crawling. (World Class)
• Climbing vertical ladders.
• Virtual bird-eye view image for teleoperation using recorded past images.
• 3D self-localization and mapping including environments.
• Generation of a sound source map.
• Estimation of surface conditions of objects by whisking.
• Testing of functions at Field Evaluation Forum.
5. Aerial Robot
• Robust flight for information gathering under difficult conditions. (World
Class)
• Hearing and identification of voice from ground during flight using an onboard
microphone array. (World’s First)
18 S. Tadokoro

• Environmental robustness (wind 15 m/s, rain 300 mm/h, and navigation near
structures with 1-m distance). (World Class)
• Continuous flight with 2 stopped propellers. (World Class)
• Load robustness (height change of 50 mm with a step weight change of 2 kg).
(World Class)
• Onboard hand and arm that maintain the position of the center of gravity
during motion.
• Wireless position sharing system for aerial vehicles.
• High precision 3D map generation using multiple GPSs.
• Hierarchical multi-resolution database for 3D point cloud.
• Use at Northern Kyushu Heavy Rain disaster for capturing high-resolution
images (1 cm/pixel) in the area of difficult accessibility in Toho Village,
Fukuoka Prefecture in Japan.
6. Construction Robot
• Double-swing dual-arm mechanism enabling dexterous but heavy work
(Fig. 1.10). (World’s Best)
• High power and high precision control necessary for task execution using two
arms. (World Class)
• Durable force and tactile feedback with no sensor at hand. (World Class)
• Pneumatic cylinder with low friction. (World Class)
• High power hand for grasping and digging.
• Realtime bird-eye-view image by drone.
• Virtual bird-eye-view image by multiple cameras onboard.
• Vision through fog.
• Immersive remote control cock-pit.
• Testing of functions at Field Evaluation Forum.

These outcomes contribute to the resolution of the difficulties of users, as shown

in Table 1.2.

1.7 Actual Use in Disasters

The Northern Kyushu Heavy Rain disaster on July 5–6, 2017 caused 36 fatalities in
Fukuoka Prefecture and Oita Prefecture, and 750 collapsed houses in a wide area.
The ImPACT-TRC team gathered information by an aerial robot on July 7–8, and
contributed to the disaster response. A drone PF-1 developed by Autonomous Control
Systems Laboratory Ltd. (ACSL) took high-resolution photos (1 cm/pixel) in a valley
area 3 km long at a speed of 60 km/h beyond visual range by specifying waypoints.
Ortho-images, as shown in Fig. 1.11, as well as the high-resolution photos were
provided to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency (FDMA) and the National
Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED), and were used
for disaster prevention.
1 Overview of the ImPACT Tough Robotics Challenge and Strategy … 19

Table 1.2 Examples of user needs and solutions provided by the ImPACT Tough Robotics Chal-
lenge
Solutions User needs
Cyber Rescue Canine suit that Rescue dogs must be near their
monitors dog’s behavior and handlers because a dog’s
conditions, and commands behavior and conditions are
actions not known remotely. Action is
not recorded and cannot be
reported in detail
Intrusion of Active Scope The area of investigation is
Camera into a few-centimeters limited because of insufficient
gap by self-ground motion and mobility. Position inside the
levitation debris cannot be measured.
Unable to listen to survivors’
voice and to construct a map
Serpentine robots that can The area of investigation is
move through plant pipes, limited and cannot cover the
ducts, rough terrain, steep whole plant because of
stairs, steps, ladder and insufficient mobility
confined spaces
Grasping, pushing, and Hand must be changed to
hooking without control adapt targets. Speed is slow
because complex control is
necessary. Motion planning is
needed to adapt to various
objects at the disaster site
Robot hand of 30 cm size that There is no small-size,
can grasp objects weighing high-power hand for disaster
50 kg without electricity and factory applications. Heat
is a serious problem in tasks
that require a large grasping
force
Outcome
[Search and Rescue] Rescue
dogs can be used a few
kilometers away. (World’s
First)
[Search and Rescue,
Emergency Response, Damage
Prevention] ASC enhances its
area of investigation and
features bird’s eye view by
levitation. It is able to listen to
survivors’ voice and construct
a map. (World’s First)
[Damage Prevention,
Emergency Response] The
robot can reach many critical
places in plants for visual
inspection. (World’s First)
[Damage Prevention,
Emergency Response, Search
and Rescue] The hand can
easily and quickly grasp a
wide variety of objects even if
they have sharp edges.
(World’s First)
[Damage Prevention,
Emergency Response,
Recovery] The hand continues
grasping without electricity
with a force of 150 N per a
finger maintaining low
temperature. (World’s First)

The PF-1 was used also for gathering information of land slides at the Western
Japan Heavy Rain Disaster on July 25–26, 2018.
As a prototype of the Active Scope Camera (ASC), a thin serpentine robot was used
from December 2016 to February 2017 for investigating inside the nuclear reactor
building of the Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1, which exploded in
March 2011. It was suspended by a crane system and entered into the debris through
boreholes and gaps in the structures; it captured images using its onboard camera
mounted on its tip, as shown in Fig. 1.12. The situation of the roof structure and a fuel
transfer machine, as well as the shift of a well plug above the pressure containment
vessel, were checked, and 3D models were produced. A dose meter installed at the
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