This site contains information for the mobility working group members.

The leaders of the Mobility Working Group are Bill McBride of the SouthWest Research Institute and Adam Jacoff of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

WK15347 New Practice for Evaluating Ground Mobility of Robots for Urban Search and Rescue Applications

Scope

This test method describes objective measures of performance for a remotely controlled ground robot capable of traversing/negotiating a variety of structured and unstructured environments, including partially or fully collapsed structures. It provides a basis for performance comparisons among such systems through associated metrics and statistically significant repetitions to establish robot capabilities. Fabricated test fixtures/props, with various surfaces, topographies and obstacles, provide abstract but repeatable tasks intended to exercise the limits of robot mobility while being operated remotely. This test method can be performed with various payloads to determine operational constraints imposed on the robot. It can also be used to ascertain operator proficiencies during training, or provide practice tasks that exercise robot actuators, sensors, and operator interfaces. There is currently no such standard for evaluating ground mobility of robots for urban search and rescue applications.
Agencies have no means of objectively evaluating the mobility capabilities of small robots that could be applied to urban search and rescue. This set of test methods enables measurements and inter-comparison among different robots.

The test method addresses the requirements for Urban Search and Rescue Personnel to maneuver the robot in open and confined spaces and operate payloads on the robot (cameras, manipulators, sensors, etc.) to successfully complete a series of navigation, sensing, and interaction test tasks after completing the training specified by the robot vendor. No such standard exists.