novel uav and ugv platforms for physical interaction with

Novel UAV and UGV Platforms for Physical Interactionwith the Environment in support of Nuclear D&D

Operations

Richard M. VOYLES1, David CAPPELLERI2, Shoushuai MOU2,

Howie CHOSET3, Robert BEAN2, Rodrigo RIMANDO4

1. Polytechnic Institute, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA, American ([email protected])2. College of Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA, American ([email protected])3. Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA, American ([email protected])4. Department of Energy/Environmental Management, Washington, DC, USA, American ([email protected])

Abstract: The current state-of-the-art in decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) remains largelybased on manual operations in personal protective equipment (PPE) with human-operated equipmentaugmenting human abilities, as needed. Increasingly, robotic or remote-piloted equipment, such asback hoes and bull dozers, have been making inroads into conventional construction projects, and theseimplements are beginning to appear in D&D projects in the nuclear industry. With the potential benefitsto worker safety and reduced risk of exposure, we have been working with a broader array of roboticequipment to bring these derived benefits earlier in the process to the realm of inspection and assessmentof potentially contaminated facilities.In this paper, we describe recent demonstrations at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant —and theirproposed extensions to more difficult problems —during a U.S. DOE “Science of Safety” exercise toexplore new technologies and new applications for nuclear D&D. We first explore the ramifications of anew class of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) designed for physical interaction with the environment thatpermits new levels of fidelity in tasks such as remote swabbing of potentially contaminated surfaces andinspection and sealing of enclosures. We also describe the advanced mobility possible with modular,snake-like unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) and hybrid combinations for advanced inspection andcharacterization.The Dexterous Hexrotor, BoomCopter, and Tiltrotor VTOL are example UAVs capable of hovering inplace, as well as horizontal flight. With varying degrees of precision, these flying vehicles can applycontrollable forces to the environment for a large variety of useful tasks, while still being able to coversignificant distances between physical interactions, even with limited battery life. The three distinctflying morphologies represent tradeoffs between the precision of contact forces and the range of coveragewith a single battery charge. Example applications of contact-based swabbing of lightly contaminatedsurfaces; opening, inspecting and sealing electrical enclosures; and inspection of very large structuresare examined. This robotic vehicles can keep humans out of hazardous environments while extendingtheir ability to see and feel.Likewise, the MOTHERSHIP and CMU Snake robots are serpentine, ground-based robots that canexplore confined spaces and other unknown or challenging spaces. Modular in design, these robotscan be configured for a variety of tasks, leveraging operator skills acquired in one task for other tasks.They can also be combined to capitalize on the heterogeneous nature of the size scales, so compositemechanisms can be purpose-built to fit the task at hand.Keyword: aerial manipulation, serpentine robots, hybrid locomotion

1. Introduction

The US Department of Energy, EnvironmentalManagement (DOE/EM) division mission isextraordinarily large and complex. Cleaningup decades of processing and fabricating nu-clear and conventional explosive materials intolarge-scale weapons will take 60 years or moreand cost hundreds of billions of dollars. Yetthe real cost of this effort is in the risk of hu-

man exposure to these materials and facilities.Radiological and chemical materials present avariety of hazards to human health and humanlivelihood. We consider such materials high-consequence materials because the consequencesof mis-handling such materials are high forboth the people handling the materials and forthe general public that live and work in thevicinity of such handling operations. As a re-sult, the DOE/EM has embarked on a “Science

1

Richard M. VOYLES, David CAPPELLERI, Shoushuai MOU, Howie CHOSET, Rodrigo RIMANDO

Figure 1: The aerial view of the massive Gaseous Diffu-sion Plant in Piketon, OH, USA shows thescale of the main process buildings, center.

of Safety” examination to explore current andfuture robotic and remote handling technolo-gies that can be employed to reduce humanexposure and societal risk during the handlingand processing of these sometimes hazardous,sometimes beneficial components.

A demonstration of capabilities was car-ried out at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusionplant in August of 2016 that included a dozenprojects from eleven performers:

• Purdue University• Carnegie Mellon University• University of Texas at Austin• Johns Hopkins University - APL• Texas A&M University• SUNY Oswego / Excelon Generation• Sandia National Lab• Savannah River National Lab• NASA Johnson Space Center(• Southwest Research Institute• Open Source Robotics Foundation

Software and hardware projects that spannedthe gamut from virtual reality to multi-leggedrobotic inspection were on display with real ap-plication scenarios and real workers [12, 9, 17,16, 11, 15, 18, 14, 7]. The Portsmouth GaseousDiffusion Plant presents an enormous facilitywith a variety of challenges for D & D. With anet length of nearly 2.5 km, the shear size of themain buildings (Fig. 1) complicates the alreadydifficult tasks of demolition with problems oflong range communications, battery life issues,and situational awareness.

The work presented here is based on thework of the DOE Science of Safety demonstra-tions at the Portsmouth site and was previously

reported in [16] and [9]. Updates to the ongo-ing work have been added to this document.

2. Physical Inspection of LargeStructures

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carls-bad, NM, USA is a storage facility for high-levelnuclear waste located deep underground. InFebruary, 2014, an incident took place that leftthe facility out of commission for nearly threeyears. A chemically-induced energetic eventoccurred within one of its storage containersthat resulted in the release of a small amountof radioactive smoke. For over a month, theDOE was unsure how to proceed, due to alack of situational awareness 660 meters belowground. (Nobody was in the mine at the timeof the incident.) Once it was deemed safe toventure down, it took another 34 months toclean up the facility to remove the traces fromthe walls, ceiling and floor inside the mine. Theenormous size of the facility took a long timeto clean, but the exhaust shaft of the ventila-tion system was the last difficult item on theagenda. At 660 meters (2150 feet) tall and 4.3meters (14 feet) in diameter, clean up wouldbe extremely hazardous. Non-contact sensingwas impractical due to the very low concentra-tions of possible material and the low energy ofamericium, which was the primary radiologicalagent in the ruptured container.

The Portsmouth gaseous diffusion plant wasused for production of enriched uranium forthe U.S. nuclear weapons program until 2010.At that point, the plant went into shutdownand has been preparing for decontaminationand decommissioning since 2011. Inspection ofthe contaminations and leaks in such facilitiesrequires preparation time and risk to humansin handling materials. We need robotic toolsto handle and inspect, working in collabora-tion with workers. Using robots reduce therisk of getting effected by radioactive materials,reduces the time involved in preparation andsafety.

The Decontamination & Decommissioning(D&D) Program at the Portsmouth Site en-

ISOFIC 2017, Gyeongju, Korea, November 26-30, 2017 2


compasses demolition and disposal of approxi-mately 415 facilities (including buildings, utili-ties, systems, ponds and infrastructure units).This includes the three Gaseous Diffusion Pro-cess buildings. These buildings housed the pro-cess equipment and span the size of 158 foot-ball fields. These building comprises of coldzones and hot zones, depending the presenceof radioactive materials. Cold zones can be ac-cessed by the workers under strict safety rules.Robots becomes the alternative for the work-ers to inspect and cleanup the facilities. Theuse of robotic technologies not only increasesefficiency, but reduce personnel exposure tohazards.

The PUREX tunnels at the Hanford Siteare another example of a large structure thatpresents complex difficulties for inspection.The recent collapse event that occurred in thesmall tunnel [8] provides a heightened senseof urgency for such modular robots that canbe specially configured for rapid resposne tounusual situations.

Robots are well suited for this kind ofcleanup program, where it is difficult for hu-mans to reach. The inspection and cleanuprequired the robot to physically interact withthe surface of the shaft. This is because thequantities and energy levels of some materialsis very low to detect with non-contact sensing.The shaft also provides an additional challengeto overcome the turbulence, as it is a cylindricalshaft. In this paper, we present the robots thatcan be used in this kind of scenarios.

3. UAVs for Physical Interaction

3.1. Dexterous Hexrotor

Common UAVs, quadrotors (Drones) in partic-ular, need to tilt their entire body and pointtheir thrust in a particular direction to gainthe acceleration. This type of UAV is under-actuated for their six degrees of freedom (DoF)mobility in 3-D space. This is because mostquadrotors have four fixed pitch propellerswith parallel (and vertical) thrust vectors [1].The standard quadrotor provides linear forcealong Z, and torques around X, Y and Z axes.

Figure 2: Sequence of images showing the DexterousHexrotor approaching and swabbing the cranerail, top, while quality control personnel wipethe swab surface, bottom. (re-printed from [9]

Torque around Z is achieved indirectly throughCoriolis forces resulting from differential angu-lar velocities of the counter-rotating propellers.But it can’t exert linear forces directly along Xand Y axes. This locomotion is nonholonomic.

In a nuclear facility, we have harsh environ-ments, no proper lighting, and interaction withthe physical environment is necessary. For thispurpose, the UAV needs have full control over6 DoF and should be able to exert forces inde-pendently. To explore all six DoF in 6-D Carte-sian force space, a new actuation design withnonparallel thrusters has been developed. AtCollaborative robotics lab, we developed Dex-terous Hexrotor, a fully-actuated UAV platformwith nonparallel actuation mechanism, as in fig.3. The nonparallel actuation is achieved by tiltrotor design, in which the rotor is rotated withrespect to their frame at a fixed angle calledcant angle [2]. This allows the UAV to exploreall 6 DoF in three-dimensional space and is amore stable platform. Desired acceleration canbe achieved by simply changing the thrust mag-nitudes of different rotors. This results in fasterresponse to acceleration, with more keepingprecise position in the plane [Jiang14.]

3.2. I-BoomCopter

The Interacting BoomCopter (I-BoomCopter) iscustom designed for enhanced physical inter-actions with the environment [10]. The vehicleis based on a Y-shaped tricopter frame withan additional boom mounted in the front of



Figure 3: Free-body diagram of the I-BoomCopter withframes of reference. (re-printed from [10]

the vehicle. A mechanism, referred to as theboom-prop, is mounted on this front boom thatallows a fourth propeller to rotate around theboom. It has been designed with symmetricpropeller blades as in fig. 3. Therefore, by ro-tating either clockwise or counter-clockwise, itcan provide thrusts in the vehicle’s forward orreverse direction (perpendicular to the main ro-tors’ thrust). Thus, the boom-prop, along withend-effectors attached at the end of the frontboom, enable the I-BoomCopter to apply hori-zontal forces while in a stable hovering config-uration, making the I-BoomCopter well suitedfor performing aerial manipulation tasks.

The I-BoomCopter’s airframe, motors, pro-pellers, and power source were each selectedto increase its payload capacity and overall effi-ciency. Its large 15-inch diameter, carbon fiberpropellers and 4-cell lithium polymer batteriesgive the I-BoomCopter a flight time of 21+ min-utes and a maximum payload of 1.86 kg. Thevehicle also carries a BeagleBone Black (BBB)computer (running Linux and the Robot Oper-ating System (ROS)), which is capable of per-forming on-board, real-time image processing,in addition to collecting and analyzing sensordata. Thus, the I-BoomCopter can implementvision-based, closed-loop control systems toperform intelligent physical interactions withthe environment.

The I-BoomCopter performed a high-speedflight test and an electrical enclosure doormanipulation task (see Fig. 4). During the

Figure 4: Free-body diagram of the I-BoomCopter withframes of reference.

indoor flight, the boom-prop was engagedto demonstrate the I-BoomCopter’s ability tomove forward at high speeds without the needto pitch the vehicle forward. In addition, theI-BoomCopter’s carefully tuned flight controlparameters and standardized radio control sys-tem made it possible for some of the unionworkers present at the demonstration to teleop-erate the system. The electrical enclosure doormanipulation task required the I-BoomCopterto detect an electrical enclosure, move into po-sition to pull on the enclosure door’s L-shapedhandle, and then open and close the door. Wedemonstrated this task with the vehicle mov-ing on the ground (see Fig. 4 for set up de-tails), to focus the demonstration on the physi-cal interaction element of the task. Subsequentwork has extended this capability to performautonomously during free-flight.

3.3. Tiltrotor VTOL

The vast majority of commercial UAVs arequadrotors. They have the advantage of lowcost, high maneuverability and user friendlycontrol. However, endurance is their chief lim-itation, as most of the designs on the marketcannot fly more than 30 minutes or so. Unlessa revolutionary new design for high-densitybatteries emerges, the endurance of quadrotorsis unlike to improve significantly.

An improved design is to combine the idea offixed-wing aircraft and multirotor. Such designcan maintain the maneuverability of quadro-tors and gain efficiency of fixed-wing aircraft.An example is the amazon prime air: it usesone rotor to provide horizontal thrust and eightrotors to provide vertical thrust during the take-off and landing. It can carry up to 5 pounds’cargo to a range up to 10 miles [6]. However,



it requires 8 motors to provide vertical thrustonly during takeoff and landing. This wastesnot only payload mass but also cost extra main-tenance requirement. Therefore, developing aUAV with rotors that are utilized both in take-off and forward flight reduces the actuatorsweight.

The UAV is comprised of pair of semi-wings,with at least two rotors mounted in the wings.The rotors can rotate relative to the first axisand tilt relative to the second axis. It has twomodes: vertical take-off and landing mode,where UAV applies thrust in vertical directionto lift off and land. In this mode it operatessame as multirotor and can hover after take-off. After first mode, UAV transitions to secondmode where the thrust is applied in horizontaldirection. During the transition rotors start totilt forward at the same time and change fromvertical position to horizontal gradually. Af-ter the transition is complete, UAV operates asfixed wing UAV with two motors for forwardflight. UAV also comprises at least two throughopenings within which rotor may tilt to changeto airplane mode.

As shown in fig. 11, two tilt-able motors (2)are individually installed on each semi-wing(1). Two servos (7) in the lower surface of thewings provide torque required to tilt the rota-tional motors which are mounted on supportrod (3). Rod (8) connects servo with horn (9)that pushes the rod (3) to tilt the motor. Twosimilar servos (10) which also located in thelower surface of the wings control the elevens(4) on the trailing edge on the wing. Controlhorn (12) is used to move elevens by servo.Propellers (6) are mounted to the motors.

4. UGVs for Inspection inUncertain Environments

4.1. MOTHERSHIPTread/Limb/Serpentine Hybrid

The MOTHERSHIP (Modular OmnidirectionalTerrain Handler for Emergency Response, Ser-pentine and Holonomic for InstantaneousPropulsion) was designed at the CollaborativeRobotics lab at Purdue University. It is a holo-

Figure 5: The novel design of the tiltrotor VTOL embedsthe rotors within the wing, itself.

Figure 6: The MOTHERSHIP is a modular design con-sisting of 2-D tread modules and 2-D articu-lating joints. Shown here with a regulationbasketball for scale, the modules are roughly25 cm in diameter.

nomic, thread/limb/serpentine hybrid robotfor locomotion in uncertain environments (Fig.6). This mechanism includes 2-D tread modulesconnected in line by the articulating joints. Fig.6 shows the configuration with three 2-D treadmodules, but it is expandable to any numberof modules, depending on the task [4]. Eachmodule is 25 cm in diameter and 23 cm long.Each articulating joint mechanism is also 23cm long making the MOTHERSHIPâAZs totallength 115 cm. Each module has and cross sec-tional diameter to length ratio of 0.2 and treadcoverage of 65%. MOTHERSHIP is designed tobe fully holonomic in movement.

4.2. CMU Snake Robot

Several generations of serial-chain and snake-like robots have been developed by Carnegie



Figure 7: CMU’s snake robot is a modular design con-sisting of 1-D joints, each one rotated 90 de-grees with respect to the prior.

MellonâAZs Biorobotics lab. The latest plat-forms are easily assembled from a set of hard-ware modules provided by former lab mem-bers at HEBI robotics (hebirobotics.com). Thetwo actuated hardware modules include: 1)1-degree-of-freedom (DoF) S-modules, and 2) 1-DoF X-modules [13]. The snake-like inspectiondevice in Fig. 7 is composed of 6 cylindrical, S-module body segments with a single X-moduleas its base. A custom sensing module witha camera and laser range sensor serves as anend-effector for inspection tasks.

The hardware modules are designed to al-low for rapid attachment and adaptation, sothat robots can be re-configured meet to taskdemands. For instance, end-effectors may beswapped for a manipulator module to supportmobile manipulation. Additionally, the robotmay be elongated (shorted) by attaching (re-moving) modules. While the X-modules use astandard bolt pattern, the S-modules are manu-ally screwed together through their black screwcollars. By creating custom, passive structuralelements to allow modules to attach in morecomplex, branched patterns, the modules canalso generate legged or wheeled robots capableof navigating difficult terrain (see [3]).

In addition to actuation, each hardware mod-ule contains a suite of sensors including an-gular encoders, accelerometers, a gyroscope,and a force sensor. Force sensing is providedby measuring the deflection of a rubber, se-

Figure 8: CMU’s hexapedal spider robot is made of thesame modular joints as the snake. Many con-figurations are possible.

ries elastic element at the output of the driveshaft. The sensor facilitates low-level controlover environmental interaction forces duringmanipulations tasks. Also, compared to tradi-tional industrial manipulators, the series elasticelement has the added benefit of compliance.Because of this compliance, the robot in Fig. 7can safely work around people without risk ofseries injury. The series elastic element can alsoabsorb large impact forces, protecting the robotfrom damage.

For ease of interfacing, the hardware mod-ules include on-board controllers that are ac-cessible through standard Ethernet communi-cation protocols. The S-modules automaticallyshare/transfer Ethernet and power connectionswhen screwed together. As shown in Fig. 10,the X-module provides an ideal base attach-ment point, since it includes a standard powerinput connection (18-48V) and Ethernet portto connect to any standard router or switch-ing equipment. Once connected to a network,the modules are individually addressable anda HEBI robotics maintains a high-level codeapplication programming interface (API) forsimple communication and control for any net-worked computer (or from the mobile base it-self).

4.3. Modular Combinations for Cus-tomized Inspection

To enhance inspection capability and to showproof-of-concept, the MOTHERSHIP and theCMU Snake arm were integrated to provide



Figure 9: MOTHERSHIP and the CMU snake werecombined to demonstrate the diverse capabilityof combining large modules with small. Thismodular combination can quickly locomoterough terrain and deftly inspect small areas.

a custom robot suitable for inspections andemergency response (Fig. 9). MOTHERSHIPis 2-D tread mechanism built, in a modularway, for the operator to tailor the configurationfor a specific task. While developing hybridconfigurations for the tread module, we mustconsider the regularity, which means, constantfrequency of tread modules and limbs. Thisallows us to expand the number of modulesin the MOTHERSHIP, as per the requirement.MOTHERSHIP, with its holonomic mobility, isa mobile base which can navigate through dif-ficult places and off-road terrains. The MOTH-ERSHIP doesnâAZt have a sensor package em-bedded in it, for inspection tasks, hence theutility of the snake robot with embedded cam-eras.

Snake robot is small in scale, compared toMOTHERSHIP. It is also built with modularity,allowing us to expand and reduce the lengthof the robot depending on the application. Theend effector can be swabbed depending of thepurpose of the task. For an inspection task ina nuclear site need sensors to detect the pres-ence of radioactive materials and also a visualfeedback is necessary. Sensing modules such as3-D gamma ray estimator, camera, laser rangesensor, can be set up on to the end-effector.For a manipulation task, a mini scale actuatingwrist and gripper can also be attached onto theend-effector. The modular design opens end-less possibilities to build the robots for different

applications, with minimal efforts.MOTHERSHIP-arm Combination is well

suited for the DOE demo assisting workersin inspection tasks at Portsmouth plant. TheMOTHERSHIP gives higher mobility insidethe facility. The Snake robot acts as an armmounted onto the MOTHERSHIP, as shownin Fig. 6, sneaks into hard to reach placesand gather information along with the video.The front module of the MOTHERSHIP casesthe electronic interface between MOTHERSHIPand snake robot. Mechanically, the Snake robotis clamped, with a custom designed mechan-ical interface, onto the MOTHERSHIP’s frontmodule. The Second module of the MOTHER-SHIP cased the electronics driving it. The rearend of the MOTHERSHIP carries battery packrequired to drive the MOTHERSHIP and theSnake robot.

The control of the MOTHERSHIP is over Zig-Bee communication protocol, with a joystick.Whereas the Snake robot connects with an Eth-ernet cable. So, we created a wifi network usingXU4, to which the snake robot is connected andcontrolled over wifi. We need to have a com-mon communication interface, so the control ofMOTHERSHIP will be switched to XU4 overwifi. This integration needs more work to makeit fully functional.

5. Discussion

Not all the nuclear facilities are identically con-structed. Building a robot which can serve is allpossible scenarios is nearly impossible. A steptowards making this possible is, if we chooseto design and develop the modular robots. Themodules, presented in this paper, of MOTHER-SHIP and Snake robot, can be assembled intoan infinite variety of permutations. MOTH-ERSHIP with a camera mounted on it, can beused for the application which require visualinspection. Snake robot is used for applicationslike inspecting tight spaces, crawling over thepipes, etc. The combination of these two mod-ular robots can classify into small/ large snakelike robots, mobile robots, rolling robots, etc.

Developing application specific robot fromthe available modules take less time, compared



to that of developing a new robot. Cost forproduction also reduces, as these modules canbe produced in large quantities. Some of thefuturistic design are discussed in this section,to provide a picture of how the modularity ben-efit in building complex structures which meetcertain specific demands in terms of inspectionor cleanup.

Robots are designed, using the above dis-cussed modules, to meet the requirements ofspecific tasks. An example of inspection task ina hard to navigate environments is H-CanyonExhaust Air Tunnel at the Savannah River Sitenuclear waste facility [5]. H-Canyon is a chem-ical separation facility built in 1950s. The ex-haust shaft air is passed through a crossovertunnel to a large sand filter through the CanyonAir Exhaust (CAEX). The tunnel, which is madefrom low grade concrete, is constantly exposedto the harsh environment with alpha contam-ination, beta-gamma doses and acid vapors.Periodic inspection of the walls of the tunnelis required to make sure of the structural in-tegrity. In the past, there have been successfulinspections carried out inside the tunnel usingrobots as shown in fig. 7. But, the robots couldmeet limited objectives of inspection and mostof them were abandoned in the tunnel. Withthe extensive scope of modular robots, moreinspections can be performed with in less timeand collect more information.

Acknowledgments

Aspects of this work were supported, in part,by National Science Foundation grants CNS-1450342, CNS-1439717 and OISE-1550326 withadditional support from the DOE Science ofSafety provided through the NSF Center forRObots and SEnsors for the HUman well-Being(RoSe-HUB).

References

[1] R. Voyles and G. Jiang. “Hexrotor UAVplatform enabling dexterous interactionwith structures-preliminary work”. In:Proceedings, IEEE International Symposium

Figure 10: MOTHERSHIP modules and CMU snakemodules assembled in this CAD renderingto create a rolling/walking inspection robotfor the long PUREX tunnel.

on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics.2012.

[2] G. Jiang and R. Voyles. “Hexrotor UAVplatform enabling dextrous interactionwith structures-flight test”. In: Proceed-ings, IEEE International Symposium onSafety, Security, and Rescue Robotics. 2013.

[3] Simon Kalouche, David Rollinson, andHowie Choset. “Modularity for maxi-mum mobility and manipulation: Con-trol of a reconfigurable legged robot withseries-elastic actuators”. In: Proceedings,IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Se-curity, and Rescue Robotics. 2015.

[4] J.T. Lane and Richard M. Voyles. “A 2-D tread mechanism for hybridization inUSAR robotics”. In: Proceedings, IEEE In-ternational Symposium on Safety, Security,and Rescue Robotics. 2015.

[5] Steven Tibrea, Luther Reid, and Eric Kri-ikku. “Robotic Challenges and Deploy-ments in an Active Fume Exhaust Tun-nel”. In: 2nd Workshop on Robotics and Au-tomation in Nuclear Facilities, IROS 2015.RNL-STI-2015-00405, 2015.

[6] P. Misener. “Exclusive: Amazon Re-veals Details About Its Crazy DroneDelivery Program [Interview by D.Pogue]”. In: Yahoo! Tech. Retrieved from



https://www.yahoo.com/tech/exclusive-amazon-reveals-details-about-1343951725436982.html (2016).

[7] R. Buckingham. “Towards a Remote Han-dling Toolkit for Fusion: Lessons Learnedand Future Challenges-17360”. In: Pro-ceedings, Waste Management Conference(WM2017). 2017.

[8] Annette Cary. “Second Hanford radioac-tive waste tunnel has âAŸhigh poten-tialâAZ of collapse”. In: Tri-City Herald,2017.

[9] Guangying Jiang et al. “Purpose-BuiltUAVs for Physical Sampling of TraceContamination at the PortsmouthGaseous Diffusion Plant–17331”. In:Proceedings, Waste Management Conference(WM2017). 2017.

[10] D. McArthur, A. Chowdhury, and D.Cappelleri. “Design of the I-BoomCopterUAV for Environmental Interaction”.In: Proceedings, IEEE International Con-ference on Robotics and Automation. 2017,pp. 5209–5214.

[11] J. Mehling, J. Rogers, and C. Beck.“Robotic Grasp Assistance for Decontam-ination and Decommissioning Tasks - Ini-tial Applications with RoboGlove-17310”.In: Proceedings, Waste Management Confer-ence (WM2017). 2017.

[12] Taskin Padir, Holly Yanco, and RobertPlatt. “Towards Cooperative Control ofHumanoid Robots for Handling High-Consequence Materials in Gloveboxes–17291”. In: Proceedings, Waste ManagementConference (WM2017). 2017.

[13] David Rollinson et al. “Design and archi-tecture of a series elastic snake robot”. In:IROS. 2017, pp. 4630–4636.

[14] B. Saund et al. “Modular Platformsfor Advanced Inspection, Locomotion,and Manipulation-17150”. In: Proceedings,Waste Management Conference (WM2017).2017.

[15] T. Sugar, S. Redkar, and J. Hitt. “WearbleRobots for Worker Assistance-17464”. In:Proceedings, Waste Management Conference(WM2017). 2017.

[16] Richard Voyles et al. “Novel Serpen-tine Robot Combinations for Inspectionin Hard-to-Reach Areas of Damaged orDecommissioned Structures-17335”. In:Proceedings, Waste Management Conference(WM2017). 2017.

[17] W. Whittaker et al. “Automation TowardTetherless Robotics Operations in Nu-clear Facilities”. In: Proceedings, WasteManagement Conference (WM2017). 2017.

[18] J. Wormley et al. “High Dexterity Robotsfor Safety and Emergency Response-17104”. In: Proceedings, Waste ManagementConference (WM2017). 2017.


novel uav and ugv platforms for physical interaction with

Documents