Mobile Robotic Devices for Covert Earth-Surface Surveillance
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current surveillance techniques, such as unmanned aerial vehicles, face limitations in monitoring concealed or underground activities and require expensive equipment and trained personnel, while ground robotic devices have seen limited use for covert surveillance due to challenges in placement and removal.
Innovation Solution
The deployment of mobile robotic devices with sensing, communication, and navigation subsystems into earth-surface environments, allowing them to be configured into various poses for stealthy operation and data collection, and optionally using utility pods for enhanced surveillance, with methods for covert insertion and removal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If unmanned aerial vehicles are used for surveillance, then personnel safety is improved by avoiding exposure to dangerous environments, but the ability to monitor concealed or underground activities deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The surveillance system is divided into multiple independent mobile robotic devices that can be deployed separately into different environments. Each device operates autonomously or semi-autonomously, allowing simultaneous aerial and ground-based surveillance operations without exposing personnel to dangerous environments while maintaining comprehensive monitoring capability across diverse terrains including concealed and underground areas.
Solution Approach 2:
Mobile robotic devices serve as intermediaries between personnel and dangerous surveillance environments. These ground-based robots can infiltrate concealed spaces, tunnels, and hazardous areas while personnel remain safely remote, controlling and monitoring the robotic devices through communication systems. This intermediary approach maintains personnel safety while extending surveillance capability into previously inaccessible concealed environments.
2Ease of manufacture
If fixed-position information sensors are used, then cost is reduced and surveillance capability is improved, but personnel exposure to risks increases during installation and maintenance
Solution Approach 1:
The system transitions from static fixed-position sensors to dynamic mobile robotic devices that can move autonomously through the environment. These mobile devices reduce installation and maintenance costs by deploying inexpensive sensor nodes without requiring personnel to physically access dangerous locations. The robotic devices navigate to sensor deployment locations, install sensors, and retrieve them when maintenance is needed, eliminating personnel exposure while maintaining cost-effectiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
Mobile robotic devices perform self-deployment and self-maintenance operations. The robots autonomously navigate to target locations, deploy sensor nodes, monitor environmental conditions, and retrieve sensors for maintenance without human intervention. This self-service capability reduces the need for expensive human deployment and maintenance operations while maintaining surveillance effectiveness, directly addressing both cost reduction and personnel safety concerns.
3Adaptability or versatility
If ground robotic devices are used for covert surveillance, then adaptability to different terrains is improved, but deployment complexity increases due to challenges in placement and removal
Solution Approach 1:
The mobile robotic devices are designed with universal mobility capabilities that enable them to traverse multiple terrain types including ground surfaces, vertical walls, and underwater environments. A single robotic platform design incorporates interchangeable locomotion mechanisms (wheels, tracks, flippers) that can be deployed based on environmental requirements, eliminating the need for specialized devices for each terrain type and simplifying deployment logistics while maintaining adaptability across diverse environments.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and system for gathering information from and setting up a surveillance network within an earth-surface environment that includes inserting one or more mobile robotic devices having a sensing subsystem, a communications subsystem, and a navigation subsystem into an earth-surface environment. The mobile robotic device may be configured into a traveling pose selected from a plurality of available traveling poses, and directed using the navigation subsystem to a sensing location within the earth-surface environment. The environment may be monitored and sensed information collected may be stored or communicated to a remote location. The mobile robotic device may be configured to operate with a vehicle carrier to facilitate insertion and deployment of the robotic vehicle into the earth-surface environment.