System and a relative method for detecting polluting substances using a remotely piloted vehicle from a haptic command device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10429519-B2
Application number	US-201615763985-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 19, 2016
Priority date	Sep 28, 2015
Publication date	Oct 1, 2019
Grant date	Oct 1, 2019

Abstract

A system (10) for the remote detection of substances, comprising a vehicle (20) that is mobile in space and remote-piloted using a control device (40) with a haptic interface suitable to return a force feedback to a user of the control device (40), wherein the vehicle (20) is equipped with a position sensor (22) and a sensor (21) for detecting a physical quantity whose intensity depends on the distance of at least one substance present in a detection point located in a vicinity of the position of the vehicle (20).

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system for the remote detection of substances, comprising:
a vehicle that is mobile in space;
a position sensor mounted on the vehicle and configured to detect a current position of the vehicle;
a detection sensor mounted on the vehicle and configured to detect a physical quantity of at least one polluting and/or radioactive substance present in a detection point located in the space where the vehicle moves in a vicinity of the current position of the vehicle, in such a way to detect, monitor or inspect the presence of the polluting and/or radioactive substance in the space where the vehicle moves on the basis of the detected physical quantity; and
a control device configured to remotely pilot the vehicle, wherein the control device has a haptic interface suitable to return a force feedback to a user of the control device on the basis of the detected physical quantity.

2. The system according to claim 1 , further comprising an electronic control unit operatively connected to the position sensor, to the detection sensor and the control device and configured so as to carry out a detection cycle which comprises steps of:
measuring a value of a physical quantity of the substance at the detection point;
determining a force feedback modulus to be returned to a user of the control device by a haptic interface on the basis of the value of the measured physical quantity; and
controlling the control device to return the force feedback with the determined modulus.

3. The system according to claim 2 , wherein the detection cycle further comprises the steps of:
comparing the value of the measured physical quantity with a threshold value thereof:
if the value of the physical quantity is greater than the threshold value, setting the position of the vehicle corresponding to the detection point where the value of the physical quantity was measured as a reference position and defining an area of the space containing the reference position and a current position of the vehicle; and
controlling the control device to return a force feedback with non-zero modulus for positions of the vehicle comprised within the defined area.

4. The system according to claim 3 , wherein at each detection cycle the electronic control unit is configured so as to update the threshold value with the measured value of the physical quantity if the measured value of the physical quantity is greater than the threshold value.

5. The system according to claim 2 , wherein the non-zero modulus of the feedback force is a function that increases as the distance of the current position from the set reference position increases.

6. The system according to claim 2 , wherein the modulus of the feedback force is zero in the set reference position.

7. The system according to claim 2 , wherein the force feedback modulus is zero for positions of the vehicle located outside the defined area.

8. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the vehicle is an unmanned air vehicle.

9. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the detection sensor is an X-ray or gamma-ray sensor and the measured physical quantity is the radiation intensity of the substance.

10. A method for the remote detection of substances using a detection system, wherein the system comprises:
a vehicle that is mobile in space;
a position sensor mounted on the vehicle and configured to detect a current position of the vehicle;
a detection sensor mounted on the vehicle and configured to detect a physical quantity of at least one polluting and/or radioactive substance present in a detection point located in the space where the vehicle moves in a vicinity of the current position of the vehicle, in such a way to detect, monitoring or inspecting the presence of the polluting and/or radioactive substance in the space where the vehicle moves on the basis of the detected physical quantity; and
a control device configured to remotely pilot the vehicle, wherein the control device has a haptic interface suitable to return a force feedback to a user of the control device on the basis of the detected physical quantity;
wherein the method comprises carrying out a detection cycle which comprises steps of:
measuring a value of the physical quantity of the at least one polluting and/or radioactive substance at the detection point;
determining a force feedback modulus to be returned to a user of the control device by the haptic interface on the basis of the value of the measured physical quantity; and
controlling the control device to return the force feedback with the determined modulus.

11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the detection cycle comprises the steps of:
comparing the value of the measured physical quantity with a threshold value thereof:
if the value of the physical quantity is greater than the threshold value, setting the position of the vehicle corresponding to the detection point where the value of the physical quantity was measured as a reference position and defining an area of the space containing the reference position and a current position of the vehicle; and
controlling the control device to return a force feedback with non-zero modulus for positions of the vehicle comprised within the defined area.

12. The method according to claim 11 , further comprising, at each detection cycle, a step of updating the threshold value with the measured value of the physical quantity if the measured value of the physical quantity is greater than the threshold value.

13. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the non-zero value of the feedback force modulus is a function that increases as the distance of the current position from the set reference position increases.

14. The method according to claim 12 , which comprises a step of calculating the feedback force modulus through the following formula:

f
=

ζ

||

r
-
u

||

⁡

[

0

1

0

0

0

-
1

-
1

0

0

Assignees

• Univ Degli Studi Di Parma
• Consiglio Nazionale Ricerche

Inventors

• Aleotti Jacopo
• Caselli Stefano
• Micconi Giorgio
• Benassi Giacomo
• Zambelli Nicola
• Zappettini Andrea
• Calestani Davide

Classifications

• B64U2201/20

  Remote controls · CPC title

• G01T7/00 Primary

  Details of radiation-measuring instruments · CPC title

• G01T1/169 Primary

  Exploration, location of contaminated surface areas · CPC title

• G01V5/02

  specially adapted for surface logging, e.g. from aircraft · CPC title

• B64C2201/12

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic