  In this work, we propose a novel mobile rescue robot equipped with an
immersive stereoscopic teleperception and a teleoperation control. This robot
is designed with the capability to perform safely a casualty-extraction
procedure. We have built a proof-of-concept mobile rescue robot called ResQbot
for the experimental platform. An approach called "loco-manipulation" is used
to perform the casualty-extraction procedure using the platform. The
performance of this robot is evaluated in terms of task accomplishment and
safety by conducting a mock rescue experiment. We use a custom-made human-sized
dummy that has been sensorised to be used as the casualty. In terms of safety,
we observe several parameters during the experiment including impact force,
acceleration, speed and displacement of the dummy's head. We also compare the
performance of the proposed immersive stereoscopic teleperception to
conventional monocular teleperception. The results of the experiments show that
the observed safety parameters are below key safety thresholds which could
possibly lead to head or neck injuries. Moreover, the teleperception comparison
results demonstrate an improvement in task-accomplishment performance when the
operator is using the immersive teleperception.
