Development of Small Diameter Active Hose-II for Search and Life-prolongation of Victims under Debris

Abstract

This paper proposes ""Active Hose-II with small diameter"" for search and life-prolongation of victims under debris. Previously proposed Active Hose-I was about 110mm in diameter, which was too large to pass through small spaces. In this paper, an actively curving unit by the ""eccentric wire"" with 45mm diameter is newly introduced as the steering tool. Furthermore, two kinds of propelling unit are proposed. One is ""crawler-hose"" with flexibility, and the other is ""wheel-joint"", both of which are designed so as for all the contact points on the ground to drive to the same direction. The validity of these mechanisms is verified through the mechanical model Active Hose-II and its experimental results are shown in the last part.