Contextual Navigation and Mapping for Rescue Robots

The need for improving the robustness and the ability to adapt to different operational conditions is a key requirement for a wider deployment of robots in many application domains. To this end, uses of contextual information have proven to be effective in many robotic applications. In this paper, we present a case study on the use of contextual information for rescue robots. The goal is to show that contextual informnation can be used to improve the system performance, by dynamically tailoring the functionalities of the robot to the specific features of the situation at hand. The case study includes several experiments, both in simulation and on a real robot, which address two core tasks in rescue applications: navigation and mapping. © 2008 IEEE.