Nine project partners developed the prototype of an autonomous mobile robot for detecting gas leaks in extensive industrial plants within the context of the "AUTONOMIK" programme of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The system's autonomous mobility was put into practice using various sensors for auto-localisation and navigation. In addition, it includes an option to intervene manually in the process using teleoperation. Equipped with video and remote gas detection technology, the robot can carry out inspections in industrial plants without having to enter possible hazard areas and without any person present on site. The robot can be used for routine inspection of plants or systematic examination of specific parts of the plant. Using remote metrology technology, it is also possible to inspect parts of the plant that are difficult to inspect using traditional measuring instruments due to limited accessibility.

Nine project partners developed the prototype of an autonomous mobile robot for detecting gas leaks in extensive industrial plants within the context of the "AUTONOMIK" programme of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The system's autonomous mobility was put into practice using various sensors for auto-localisation and navigation. In addition, it includes an option to intervene manually in the process using teleoperation. Equipped with video and remote gas detection technology, the robot can carry out inspections in industrial plants without having to enter possible hazard areas and without any person present on site. The robot can be used for routine inspection of plants or systematic examination of specific parts of the plant. Using remote metrology technology, it is also possible to inspect parts of the plant that are difficult to inspect using traditional measuring instruments due to limited accessibility.

Im Rahmen des Förderprogramms AUTONOMIK des Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft und Technologie wurde in einem Konsortium aus neun Projektpartnern der Prototyp eines autonomen mobilen Roboters zur Gaslecksuche in ausgedehnten Industrieanlagen entwickelt. Anhand verschiedener Sensorik zur Selbstlokalisierung und Navigation wurde die autonome Beweglichkeit des Systems für beliebige Anlagen realisiert, mit der Option anhand von Teleoperation manuell in den Prozess einzugreifen. Ausgestattet mit Video- und Gasfernmesstechnik ist der Roboter imstande, Inspektionsaufgaben in Industrieanlagen durchzuführen, ohne in mögliche Gefahrenbereiche direkt einfahren zu müssen und ohne, dass ein Mensch vor Ort anwesend ist. Der Roboter kann zur routinemäßigen Inspektion von Anlagen oder zur gezielten Untersuchung spezifischer Anlagenteile engesetzt werden. Dank der verwendeten Fernmesstechnik können auch Anlagenteile inspiziert werden, die aufgrund ihrer beschränkten Zugänglichkeit mittels herkömmlicher Messtechnik nur schwer zu inspizieren sind.

Im Rahmen des Förderprogramms AUTONOMIK des Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft und Technologie wurde in einem Konsortium aus neun Projektpartnern der Prototyp eines autonomen mobilen Roboters zur Gaslecksuche in ausgedehnten Industrieanlagen entwickelt. Anhand verschiedener Sensorik zur Selbstlokalisierung und Navigation wurde die autonome Beweglichkeit des Systems für beliebige Anlagen realisiert, mit der Option anhand von Teleoperation manuell in den Prozess einzugreifen. Ausgestattet mit Video- und Gasfernmesstechnik ist der Roboter imstande, Inspektionsaufgaben in Industrieanlagen durchzuführen, ohne in mögliche Gefahrenbereiche direkt einfahren zu müssen und ohne, dass ein Mensch vor Ort anwesend ist. Der Roboter kann zur routinemäßigen Inspektion von Anlagen oder zur gezielten Untersuchung spezifischer Anlagenteile engesetzt werden. Dank der verwendeten Fernmesstechnik können auch Anlagenteile inspiziert werden, die aufgrund ihrer beschränkten Zugänglichkeit mittels herkömmlicher Messtechnik nur schwer zu inspizieren sind.

Industrial plants are a vital and common asset of modern society in a various number of ways. Safety of large industrial complexes that handle hazardous chemical materials is of utter importance to prevent harm to employees, general population, our natural environment and valuable infrastructure. Therefore, beside the plant owner’s own financial interest to guarantee faultless and safe operation, legal regulations have to be adhered due to strong public interest as well. An important measure to ensure safety is the implementation of regular inspection tours by maintenance personnel, who examine the often widely-stretched process infrastructure on foot and locally search for signs of beginning leakage. The Research Project RoboGasInspector was started to develop new means of aiding with the fulfillment of this essential task. This article gives an insight into this ongoing research project, where autonomous mobile robotics is combined with laser-based remote gas detection technology in order to create a proof-of-concept inspection system prototype, which can relieve humans of this monotonous and highly repetitive work.

Industrial plants are a vital and common asset of modern society in a various number of ways. Safety of large industrial complexes that handle hazardous chemical materials is of utter importance to prevent harm to employees, general population, our natural environment and valuable infrastructure. Therefore, beside the plant owner's own financial interest to guarantee faultless and safe operation, legal regulations have to be adhered due to strong public interest as well. An important measure to ensure safety is the implementation of regular inspection tours by maintenance personnel, who examine the often widely-stretched process infrastructure on foot and locally search for signs of beginning leakage. The Research Project RoboGasInspector was started to develop new means of aiding with the fulfillment of this essential task. This article gives an insight into this ongoing research project, where autonomous mobile robotics is combined with laser-based remote gas detection technology in order to create a proof-of-concept inspection system prototype, which can relieve humans of this monotonous and highly repetitive work.

To facilitate user-centered software engineering, developers need an easy to grasp understanding of the user. The use of personas helps to keep specific user needs in mind during the design process. Technology acceptance is of particular interest for the design of innovative applications previously unknown to potential users. Therefore, our research focuses on defining a typology of relevant user characteristics with respect to technology acceptance and transferring those findings to the description of personas. The presented work focuses on the statistical relationship between technology acceptance and personality. We apply sub-group discovery as a statistical tool. Based on the statistically derived subgroups and patterns we define the mentioned personas to help developers to understand different forms of technology acceptance. By integrating the specifically defined personas into existing methods in the field of software engineering the feasibility of the presented approach is demonstrated.