Unmanned multi-robot CBRNE reconnaissance with mobile manipulation System description and technical validation

This paper presents a prototype of a multi-robot reconnaissance system for detection of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive (CBRNE) threats. Different robot platforms are able to carry highly modularized payload platforms: either a multi-purpose CBRNE sensor suite or a mobile manipulator for semi-autonomous sample collection. A variety of sensors is available for detection and identification of chemical and radiological hazards as well as for collecting potentially dangerous airborne biological particles. The manipulator is used to gather chemical and biological samples directly from surfaces in the environment. Unlike in most industrial applications the environment is not known a priori, therefore a randomized path planning algorithm is used to generate collision-free trajectories. A detailed description illustrates the robot platforms, the CBRNE sensor suite, and the mobile manipulator as well as relevant parts of control software and user interface. For a technical validation preliminary real world experiments are presented.