ASTM International

Standard Test Method for Evaluating Emergency Response Robot Capabilities: Mobility: Confined Area Terrains: Continuous Pitch/Roll Ramps
 N E2826

Annotation

Purpose:

The purpose of this test method, as a part of a suite of mobility test methods, is to quantitatively evaluate a teleoperated ground robot's (see Terminology E2521) capability of traversing complex terrain composed of continuous pitch/roll ramps in confined areas.

Robots shall possess a certain set of mobility capabilities, including negotiating complex terrains, to suit critical operations such as emergency responses. A part of the complexity is that the environments often pose constraints to robotic mobility to various degrees. This test method specifies apparatuses to standardize a confined areas terrain that is composed of continuous pitch/roll ramps and that notionally represents types of terrains containing undulating slopes, existent in emergency response and other environments. This test method also specifies procedures and metrics to standardize testing using the apparatus.

The test apparatuses are scalable to provide a range of lateral dimensions to constrain the robotic mobility during task performance. Fig. 1 shows three apparatus sizes to test robots intended for different emergency response scenarios.

Emergency response ground robots shall be able to handle many types of obstacles and terrains. The required mobility capabilities include traversing gaps, hurdles, stairs, slopes, various types of floor surfaces or terrains, and confined passageways. Yet additional mobility requirements include sustained speeds and towing capabilities. Standard test methods are required to evaluate whether candidate robots meet these requirements.

ASTM Task Group E54.08.01 on robotics specifies a mobility test suite, which consists of a set of test methods for evaluating these mobility capability requirements. This continuous pitch/roll ramps terrain traversing test method is a part of the mobility test suite. Fig. 2 shows examples of other confined area terrains, along with the traversing paths. The apparatuses associated with the test methods challenge specific robot capabilities in repeatable ways to facilitate comparison of different robot models as well as particular configurations of similar robot models.