Update Tanzania collaspe: CRASAR not needed

We have been communicating with the Tanzanian Embassy in London and the response is winding down- we won’t be needed, though we may be asked to engage the Tanzanian response community at a later date to expose them to the advances in rescue robotics. We extend our condolences for the families of the four dead and two injured reported this morning in the news, and hope that the missing will be found.

We are watching the Tanzania building collapse with great sorrow and wish the Tanzanian people and responders the best as they struggle to help the victims and families and deal with their losses. We are on internal stand-by and hope to be invited to assist. In a dense building collapse like this, very small tethered robots can often go 20 to 30 m further than the 8m or so that traditional search camera systems can penetrate. The Japanese Active Scope Camera is also great for dense collapses, as seen at our deployment at the Berkman Plaza collapse in Jacksonville.

Swarming robots could be the servants of the future

Researchers in the Sheffield Centre for Robotics are working on making small robots that do not have much thinking power, but are used in a swarm to complete different tasks. Right now these robots are small, but On a larger scale, they could play a part in military, or search and rescue operations, acting together in areas where it would be too dangerous or impractical for humans to go.
Here is the link to the full article at Phys.org and at Science Daily.

Iranian robotics lab works on a Quadcopter ocean rescue drone

The robot features GPS navigation tools, artificial intelligence, sound and image processing, autopilot search and rescue and a range of sensors including a three axel gyroscope, barometer, and compass. The robot is used to find people in the ocean and give them flotation items, as well as help rescuers found them.
Here is the link to the full article Wired.co.uk .
Here is another link to the full article from Robotics Trends .

Human-Like Bipedal Walking Robot

Assistant Professor Dr. Aaron Ames at the A&M Bipedal Experimental Robotics Lab (AMBER), he and his students have worked to create a robot that walks like a human. This techonlogy could have applications in space exploration, disaster response, military operations, prosthetics and other areas. Here is the full article.

Domestic Drones Stir Imaginations, and Concerns

Unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, or Drones as this article calls them have become more an more popular in many states. University of North Dakota has become the first university to offer a degree program in unmanned aviation. As well as drones become more wide spread law makers and the FAA are having to raise and answer a lot of questions to keep people safe.
Here is the full article.