See the main agenda page for the full agenda. Where times and locations differ between this page and the main agenda page, the main agenda page takes priority.
This page only covers the descriptions for sessions that are specific to the RRSS+W, rather than those shared with TXPS, which are described on the TXPS website.
Practical Groups
Various times and locations
The Practical Group sessions are times when RRSS+W attendees have the opportunity to join the many and varied practical activities that happen throughout the venue of the Texas Public Safety Robotics Summit (TXPS). The full TXPS agenda, including details of all of the sessions, is available at their website.
Many of the speakers and vendors will also be present for the whole event and many of the vendors also bring representatives with engineering expertise. Attendees are encouraged to use the “Practical Group” time to connect and network with others at the TXPS in their area of interest and arrange for one-on-one discussions and demonstrations.
Based on past events, we anticipate that there will be vendors and demonstrations at TXPS that include, but are not limited to:
- 3D mapping and indoor/outdoor navigation in unstructured environments.
- Mobility in challenging terrain and among 3D obstacles.
- Dexterous manipulation and inspection.
- Transition of technologies into real world unstructured environments.
- Novel sensors for response robotics.
- Human factors in the deployment of response robots.
We will be holding a Practical Group Planning session over lunch on Monday to help attendees get oriented with respect to what is on offer, and to help plan where they might wish to go during these sessions.
Team Awareness Kit (TAK)
Monday March 4th, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM, Pavilion
See the TXPS Shedule for details of the presentation.
Novel Communications for Public Safety Robotics – A Discussion
Monday March 4th, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM, Field
Robots for public safety used to consist of a robot communicating with an operator control station (OCU), via an umbilical cable or a radio link.
We are increasingly seeing robots, both in the lab and in commercial deployment, that use novel ways of communicating, both with the operator, as well as with other entities, be they other people, or even other robots and devices. This capability vastly increases the capabilities of these robots, and also presents various challenges.
Examples of technologies that are gaining a lot of attention in the public safety robotics space include integration into 4G and 5G cellular networks and mesh networking. Already there are aerial and ground robots on the market with one, or both, of these capabilities, in addition to their traditional connection back to the OCU.
In this session, Terese Manley and Donald Harris from the NIST Public Safety Communications Research Division, and Ryan Perry from Silvus Technologies, will each give talks and then host a panel discussion on the capabilities, potential, and challenges of these novel technologies.
Evaluating sUAS Capabilities for Operations in Dense Urban Environments
Tuesday March 5th, 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM, Classroom
Small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) are proving to be advantageous assets for public safety operations. The high variability of dense urban environments (e.g., outdoor and indoor, wind speeds, night/day operations) require intelligent systems assets to possess robust, functional capabilities; for sUAS specifically, these conditions impact communications, navigation, obstacle avoidance, and mapping performance, among others. This talk will cover ongoing efforts to develop test methods to evaluate these types of sUAS capabilities when operating in dense urban environments.
Mesh Networking Technologies (Presentation and Demo)
Tuesday March 5th, 10:00 AM – 12:00 AM, Pavilion and Landing Zone
See the TXPS Schedule for details of the presentation and demo.
Search and Rescue Practical: Radios in the Ravine
Tuesday March 5th, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM, Ravine
Most UAS used in public safety serve as “Eyes in the Sky” in some form. What if the UAS is also needing to seek out and communicate via radio with other devices out in the field, be it an emergency locator beacon, an IoT sensor, or the cellphone of a missing person? Join us in this hands-on, experimental session, as we outfit the Ravine with radio targets and see how we might do a radio search with a UAS in a challenging environment.
NIST Standard Test Methods for Response Robots
Tuesday March 5th, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM, Pavilion
See TXPS Schedule for details of the presentation.
Student Robot Demonstrations and Poster Presentations
Tuesday March 5th, 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM, Classroom
- Learning Outdoor Navigation in Challenging Environments
- Francesco Cancelliere
- Dept. of Electrical Electronic and Computer Engineering (DIEEI), University of Catania
- Insect-scale shape-morphing robot locomotion in confined terrain
- Heiko Kabutz, Kaushik Jayaram
- Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder
- Deployment of Microrobots with Soft Growing Robots
- Mustafa Ugur and Laura H. Blumenschein
- School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University
Cyber Security and Privacy for Public Safety Robotics
Wednesday March 6th, 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM, Field
Further details to come!
Managing Cybersecurity and AI Risk for UAS in Public Safety
Wednesday March 6th, 11:00 AM – 11:45 AM, Pavilion
See TXPS Schedule for details of the presentation.