Integrating ROS and Android for Rescuers in a Cloud Robotics Architecture: Application to a Casualty Evacuation Exercise

Abstract

Cloud robotics and the Internet of robotic things (IoRT) can boost the performance of human-robot cooperative teams in demanding environments (e.g., disaster response, mining, demolition, and nuclear sites) by allowing timely information sharing between agents on the field (both human and robotic) and the mission control center. In previous works, we defined an Edge/Cloud-based IoRT and communications architecture for heterogeneous multi-agent systems that was applied to search and rescue missions (SAR-IoCA). In this paper, we address the integration of a remote mission control center, which performs path planning, teleoperation and mission supervision, into a ROS network. Furthermore, we present the UMA-ROS-Android app, which allows publishing smartphone sensor data, including audio and high definition images from the rear camera, and can be used by responders for requesting a robot to the control center from a geolocalized field position. The app works up to API 32 and has been shared for the ROS community. The paper offers a case study where the proposed framework was applied to a cooperative casualty evacuation mission with professional responders and an unmanned rover with two detachable stretchers in a high-fidelity exercise performed in Malaga (Spain) in June 2022.