In disaster response and situation assessment, robots have great potential in reducing the risks to the safety and health of first responders. As the situations encountered and the required capabilities of the robots deployed in such missions differ wildly and are often not known in advance, heterogeneous fleets of robots are needed to cover a wide range of mission requirements. While UAVs can quickly survey the mission environment, their ability to carry heavy payloads such as sensors and manipulators is limited. UGVs can carry required payloads to assess and manipulate the mission environment, but need to be able to deal with difficult and unstructured terrain such as rubble and stairs. The ability of tracked platforms with articulated arms (flippers) to reconfigure their geometry makes them particularly effective for navigating challenging terrain. In this paper, we present Athena, an open-hardware rescue ground robot research platform with four individually reconfigurable flippers and a reliable low-cost remote emergency stop (E-Stop) solution. A novel mounting solution using an industrial PU belt and tooth inserts allows the replacement and testing of different track profiles. The manipulator with a maximum reach of 1.54m can be used to operate doors, valves, and other objects of interest. Full CAD & PCB files, as well as all low-level software, are released as open-source contributions.

翻译：在灾害响应与态势评估中，机器人具有降低应急救援人员安全健康风险的巨大潜力。由于此类任务中遭遇的场景及所需机器人能力差异极大且通常无法预先获知，需要异构机器人集群以满足广泛的使命要求。尽管无人机能快速勘测任务环境，但其搭载传感器与机械臂等重型有效载荷的能力有限。地面无人载具虽能携带必要载荷以评估和操控任务环境，但需具备应对瓦砾堆与楼梯等复杂非结构化地形的能力。配备铰接臂（摆臂）的履带式平台因其几何构型可重构特性，在挑战性地形导航方面表现尤为突出。本文提出雅典娜——一款配备四个独立可重构摆臂的开源救援地面机器人研究平台，并提供可靠的低成本远程紧急制动解决方案。通过采用工业聚氨酯同步带与嵌齿的新型安装方案，可实现不同履带廓形的更换与测试。最大伸展半径达1.54米的机械臂可用于操作门阀及其他目标物体。完整的计算机辅助设计文件、印刷电路板设计文件及全部底层软件均作为开源成果发布。