A Behavioral Robotics Approach to Radiation Mapping Using Adaptive Sampling

Journal Article · 14 February 2025 · Applied Sciences

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/app15042050 · OSTI ID:2519291

Adams, Joel; Cintas, Brendon ; Sung, Nakwon; Abrahao, Anthony; Lagos, Leonel ; McDaniel, Dwayne

Radiation mapping is a desirable task to automate because of the inherent risks involved and its tedious nature. A novel system was designed to address this by combining various existing technologies, utilizing behavior-based robotics and Bayesian optimization. The system uses a quadruped robot equipped with a manipulator and gamma detector to take measurements at locations that are selected based on the uncertainty of a surrogate model used to estimate the true radiation field. The robot uses input from the world with depth cameras to avoid collisions with the robot’s body, and unreachable points for the end effector are addressed by both allowing for a soft collision with the environment to occur, prompting the system to abandon that point, and varying the exploration tendency of the optimization based on consecutive collisions. This approach provides unique traversability and adaptability over other strategies in the literature. Experiments were performed by placing a Cesium-137 source on the ground and varying geometric setups and an optimization parameter demonstrating the adaptability to diverse environments and the increased robustness resulting from the designed behavior. The results additionally demonstrate that dynamically adjusting the optimization algorithm’s exploration tendency based on the arm’s collision history improves the system’s ability to navigate cluttered environments and construct accurate radiation maps without getting stuck in unreachable areas.

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: EM0005213
• OSTI ID: 2519291
• Journal Information: Applied Sciences, Journal Name: Applied Sciences Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 15; ISSN ASPCC7; ISSN 2076-3417
• Publisher: MDPI AGCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: Switzerland
• Language: English