NIST: Search and rescue robots suffer communications problems
In a report mirroring concerns about UAVs and EOD drones, NIST says that urban search and rescue robots too often interfere with each other’s communications; neither ISM bands or established protocols solve the problem
There is little doubt that sensor-carrying robots will one day play a vital role in search and rescue missions, but until that day comes researchers will have a lot of work to do to ensure that they can operate effectively. One major challenge, a new NIST report claims, is that the radio transmissions of multiple robots can interfere with each other. The problem is similar to that reported in our recent account of the Navy’s efforts to develop a EOD robot from the ground floor up: the various commercial models on the market cannot communicate with one another. It also brings to mind troubles plaguing the UAV market, which has not yet found a way to establish reliable communications between craft and with ground controllers.
The NIST study of urban search and rescue (US&R) robots found that ten out of the fourteen robots tested at a recent US&R standards development conference experienced communication problems due to radio interference from other systems. Neither use of “industrial, scientific, and medical” (ISM) frequency bands nor adherence to estblished interference protocols, NIST discovered, could guarantee sufficiently reliable communication. The major problem, it seems, it that too often one user relied on much stronger output power than the others. In one case, a robot operating on the 1760 MHz band knocked out video links in the 2.4 GHz frequency band. In another case, a robot using an 802.11b signal in the 2.4 GHz band overwhelmed and cut off a robot that had been transmitting an analog video link at 2.414 GHz.
The NIST paper offers a number of suggestions, including changes in frequency coordination, transmission protocols, power output, and access priority; and using relay transformers to increase the range of wireless transmissions (a technique known as multi-hop communications). The paper also suggests establishing new access schemes or software-defined radios that allow interoperable communications.
-read more in this NIST news release
