Abstract

With the increasing demand for robots to operate in difficult-to-access places, especially those that are considered hostile and extreme from a human perspective, comes the need to create robotic devices that go beyond the capabilities of the existing traditional rigid-component robots. In order to cope with such environmental requirements, these new robots need to be capable of entering through narrow openings and then to reconfigure to tackle the tasks at hand, aside from being appropriately protected to withstand the adversities of such an environment.

With the resultant constraints on the robot’s structure, new concepts are needed. Fusing function with structure will allow us to create a new generation of robotic devices that can perceive the environment and meaningfully interact with it at the same time. This concept will densely integrate multiple functionalities optimised for remote operations. The presentation explores advanced robotic structures that are densely integrated with a host of actuation and perception capabilities to reach remote sites and in addition to interact with the environment in a purposeful way to achieve high-level tasks.