Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Path: brunix!uunet!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!noc.near.net!gateway-gw!newshost!wpns
From: wpns@newshost.pictel.com (Willie Smith)
Subject: Re: Safety of large mobile robots
Message-ID: <1993Jul12.154126.423@newshost.pictel.com>
Organization: PictureTel Corporation
References: <1993Jun29.215740.17141@comp.lancs.ac.uk>
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1993 15:41:26 GMT
Lines: 31

davei@comp.lancs.ac.uk (Mr D Ingles) writes:
>Can anyone give me any information on what techniques are being used with 
>regards to safety of large mobile robots.

>I am interested in the safety of :
>	a)people 
>	b)property 
>rather than the safety of the robot itself.

>Obviously the safety system has to be independant of the main control system 
>but how should the safety system be arranged.

Well, my teleop vehicle isn't too large, but it could hurt someone or
damage some property, so we're currently using a 'range safety
officer', a separate person who follows it around in real-time with an
override control (higher powered transmitter) and can put on the
brakes or drive around fragile things.

The next generation of the control software will allow control of the
vehicle from a PeeCee, and will have different overrides.  A separate
receiver with a touch-tone decoder will apply RESET to the onboard
computer, remove drive power from the PWM motor drivers, and apply the
brakes unconditionally.

In the given example of a robotic earthmover, I'd make it
teleoperated, keep it away from people, and have separate shutdown and
override circuits to recover from software problems.

-- 
Willie Smith	wpns@pictel.com		N1JBJ@amsat.org
Usenet is a way of being annoyed by people you otherwise never would have met
