Robotic Tasks for CBRNE Incident Response

Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive (CBRNE) incident response varies dramatically based upon the hazardous material, the incident size, and the response duration. Robots can facilitate response planning, maintaining situational awareness, removing responders from dangerous situations, and allowing for immediate site feedback prior to human responder entry. This paper presents eight robotic tasks informed by a cognitive task analysis and an Information Flow Analysis. These analyses were conducted in order to inform the design of a system of multiple robots and the associated human-robotic interfaces required to support the CBRNE response command hierarchy. The cognitive task analysis was conducted over three years and incorporated direct CBRNE response personnel feedback and CBRNE incident exercise observations. The purpose of this paper is to present the identified tasks and how robots can augment the existing human-based CBRNE incident response by improving the provided information, the speed at which information can be obtained, and reducing responders’ physical workload. It is clear from our analyses that poorly designed robots and task capabilities will be highly disruptive to the human-centric CBRNE response activities.