An Evidence Collection System for Robot-Supported Inspection of Critical Infrastructure

In many sectors, it is necessary to collect evidence in advance, as it may be needed later. While evidence in law enforcement is collected after a crime has occurred to solve it, it needs to be collected in commercial systems in advance to avoid potential future disputes. But can existing data (in the rare case it is needed as such) serve as credible and useful evidence? In this paper we describe the design of a system to collect data for potential use as proof that inspections of critical infrastructure (in this case cable ducts) took place and that certain alarms about potential problems did (or did not) occur. The system consists of two parts, a mobile robot, and a base station. Data needs to be collected independently in both parts and combined later to be able to serve as evidence.