Research

Construction of the German Rescue Robotics Center

First Working Session and Group Meeting – the Institute for Robotics and Cognitive Systems at the University of Lübeck is involved.

On 10 and 11 March 2019, the first bi-annual Working Session and Group Meeting of the research project “Construction of the German Rescue Robotics Center” (A-DRZ) took place with the involvement of the project partners and project sponsors (VDI-TZ). The Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics (FKIE) in Wachtberg hosted the event. The University of Lübeck’s Institute for Robotics and Cognitive Systems is involved in the future centre.

Under the leadership of the Dortmund Fire Brigade, who are coordinating the project, the project consortium set out three focus areas for the meeting. Alongside a general presentation of the latest project results relating to application and technical research, there was also a focus on project-related exhibits and demonstrators as well as cross-discipline workshops. The project partners involved presented, among others things, innovative possibilities for team communications processing and process modelling, live visualisation of sensory data (from ground and airborne systems), and a prototype of the system for depicting an environment with a live videostream from an airborne robot system. During the workshops, for example, the requirements for interoperable communication modules were detailed, a potential concept for a “mobile robotics control centre” was outlined, the visualisation/depiction of an environment for end users was developed, and possibilities for supporting teamwork between people and deployed robots was discussed.

All aspects place great emphasis on ensuring that solutions are based on the needs of the emergency and rescue services. Compared with industrial and medical robots, the use of robots in unfamiliar and dangerous environments, and in highly dynamic and time-critical situations, places special demands on the concepts and technology involved.

The main objective of the A-DRZ project is to construct a German-wide competence centre for the development, use, and testing of ground and airborne robot systems that support rescue services in the area of civil security. The research project “Construction of the German Rescue Robotics Center” (A-DRZ)”, with 13 renowned project partners from the fields of application, research, and industry, began at the end of 2018. The research project, initially planned for four years, is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the funding announcement “Civil Security – Innovation Laboratory/Competence Centre for Robots Systems in Hostile Environments” (Grant numbers 13N14852 to 13N14863) as part of the programme “Research for Civil Security 2012 to 2017”.