I am trying with friends to design a relatively small and simple robots that can collaborate together to lift a human body or move a human from one place to another. The assumption is that the human is laying on the ground and will not be moving. Assume a very simple enviornment.. I have a basic idea in mind, but I would like to hear more ideas and suggestions..
The idea in my mind is basically each robot has two parts tied together with a flexible spring and has a strong sheet (same material as in cars seatbelts) once the robot reaches the human body it splits itself by releasing the spring that ties it to the other half, and relaxes the sheet to touch the ground. Each half of the robot goes to one side on the human and then the each half starts moving forward which pushes the sheet between the human and the ground ... several robots do the same thing till they are enough to pull the sheet a little bit raising the human a few centimeters above the ground and then they all move together(I was thinking three robots one for the head, one for the waist and one for the legs)
another requisite to lift a heavy weight it’s to be able to sustain its pressure, so it should be way easier to lift a human lying down, rather than one standing on its feet.
I’d consider a good goal to start to have two 2 wheeled bot that can join to be a 4 wheeled bot.
How about giving each robot How about giving each robot a laser and a small container. It will cut a small piece of human off with the laser, and transport it in the container to the desired place, then repeat until all pieces are correctly moved?
Another option would be to Another option would be to use the strength of the human itself. Give each robot a shock rod, and make them prod the human to make it move in the desired direction. Some swarm planning must be performed, in order to prevent the human from escaping, but I think it’s doable with enough small robots.
I can’t draw at the moment. I’d use a cart with many castor wheels to move the body, instead of making the robots to go under the body and move.
About lifting it’s pretty complicated because of clothing, floppiness, differences between bodies, movements and willingness of the human. If he can lift itself on a cart it’s way better.
If he can’t because unconsciousness, paralysis or else, it’s usually done by at least one or two paramedics.
How about a hard lifter rather than cloth? This isn’t as simple as the original idea, but what about using a hard lifter, sort of like a non-stick fry flipper?
That way you might be able to get under the parts of the body that are stuck to the floor by gravity.
It occurs to me that if one robot cut the human into slices with say, a small electric chainsaw, then another robot could easily pick up the lighter pieces one at a time and throw them into an elevated bin of some kind. The weight requirements on the arm would be a lot lower. The bots could be smaller and much more economical.
There would be a bloody mess though, but that could be an advantage. The second bot could find the body parts with a simple sonar, a cam, and OpenCV simply by looking for anything that is above floor level that is red. I think it could work.
