had a great day with the Austin Police Department Technical Unit working with our UAVs and UGVs at the Disaster City chemical train derailment site! They came out as part of experimentation with the use of robots for CBRN disasters.
Archive for the ‘Rescue Robots’ Category
Austin Police Department Technical Unit
Posted by Dr. Robin Murphy on March 24th, 2012 at 7:25 am GMT+7 – Updated: February 20th, 2013 at 7:17 am GMT+7
In Japan for the anniversary of the tsunami
Posted by Dr. Robin Murphy on March 10th, 2012 at 3:27 am GMT+7 – Updated: February 20th, 2013 at 7:17 am GMT+7
I have returned to Japan representing CRASAR and the Roboticists Without Borders members who assisted with the deployments to Minamisanriku and Rikuzentakata in April and October. Tomorrow I will join Prof. Satoshi Tadokoro, head of the International Rescue System Institute and our partner in the response and recovery work, and Dr. Anne Emig, our kind facilitator from the National Science Foundation, to attend the memorial service in Minamisanriku. Over 400 miles of coastland were destroyed by the tsunami, but Minamisanriku serves as a symbol for the damage– and the city was especially gracious to allow us to learn about rescue robotics through helping them in a small way.
Minamisanriku is a bit like Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket- small fishing towns that swell with vacationers. When we were there 11 months ago, above the surge line the cherry trees were beginning to blossom around the lovely houses. It was truly Spring with the promise of beauty and renewal. Below the waterline was utter destruction. The views were, are, irreconcilable.
But at the same time the image of flowering cherry blossoms above the debris speaks of mourning the loss of life and livelihood while at the same time acknowledging the resilience of the Japanese people as they move forward.
Ageotec Perseo ROV assisting with the Costa Concordia wreck
Posted by Dr. Robin Murphy on January 25th, 2012 at 6:31 pm GMT+7 – Updated: February 20th, 2013 at 7:20 am GMT+7
A patch goes to Antoine Martin who provided these links including video of the Italian made Ageotec Perseo ROV being deployed by the Italian Fire Department (still not clear if it is a municipality or a group like FEMA). Check it out! Video from robotsnob, Ageotec’s site, and a full frontal view of the ROV.
Robots are at Costa Concordia!
Posted by Dr. Robin Murphy on January 25th, 2012 at 7:26 am GMT+7 – Updated: February 20th, 2013 at 7:20 am GMT+7
Underwater robots are assisting with the Costa Concordia wreck (see link).. A CRASAR Roboticists Without Borders patch to the first person who can confirm the type, model, and deploying agency!
Costa Concordia: Robots can help!
Posted by Dr. Robin Murphy on January 15th, 2012 at 10:18 am GMT+7 – Updated: February 20th, 2013 at 7:20 am GMT+7
The news of the Costa Concordia sinking is tragic and our hearts go out to the families and victims. CRASAR has put out offers to assist with underwater vehicles such as those used for the tsunami response in Japan. Remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) in particular have been used to extensively to help gather forensic data on sinkings and to help divers repair and refloat ships. ROVs in this case could assist with victim recovery from the icy waters, as sadly time is running out for live rescues. The Italian Coast Guard used an ROV to search for the missing balloonists last year, so it is likely that an ROV is in use, though there is no confirmation. A CRASAR patch to the first person who can confirm the use of ROVs!
Leaping Lizards: Bob Full’s work and US&R
Posted by Dr. Robin Murphy on January 12th, 2012 at 10:14 am GMT+7 – Updated: February 20th, 2013 at 7:20 am GMT+7
Several groups are reporting on Prof. Bob Full’s lab work in tails for robots based on the ways lizards use tail to counterbalance but also steer when they jump! I was interviewed for comments. I’m a big fan of Bob’s. This would have been fantastic to have a small robot that could steer itself as it was lowered (or jumped) from ledge to ledge at the Midas Gold Mine disaster back in 2007. And many robots use some sort of shifting weight like a flipper or a manipulator arm or its shape to try to get over obstacles or down stairs without tipping. Check it out!
Spider robot for rescue by colleagues at Fraunhofer Institute
Posted by Dr. Robin Murphy on December 6th, 2011 at 10:19 am GMT+7 – Updated: February 20th, 2013 at 7:20 am GMT+7
Check out http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45151024/ns/technology_and_science-innovation/t/jumping-robot-spider-crawls-out–d-printer/. We worked with the Fraunhofer Institute at the State Archives Collapse in Cologne- great group there!
Researchers and Responders to Jointly Develop UAV Visual Common Ground
Posted by Dr. Robin Murphy on November 22nd, 2011 at 8:37 am GMT+7 – Updated: February 20th, 2013 at 7:20 am GMT+7
Researchers and responders from The Texas A&M University System have received a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create a visual “common ground” between operators and responders who use micro and small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for search and rescue.
Following principles in how people know what other people are talking about in conversations, visual common ground will allow responders to easily express where they want the UAV to fly and what angle to examine collapsed structures using an iPad or other tablet. The responders would also be able to review imagery and video while the UAV continues its mission rather than wait for the UAV to land.
Response professionals from the Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) Disaster Preparedness and Response Division (DPR) will fly weekly at Disaster City® with researchers from the Texas Engineering Experiment Station’s (TEES) Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue (CRASAR), speeding the development and refinement of the natural user interface.
Disaster City® is a 52-acre facility designed featuring full-scale collapsible structures that replicate community infrastructure. The site includes simulations of a strip mall, office building, industrial complex, assembly hall/theater, single-family dwelling, train derailments, three active rubble piles and a small lake.
The grant is the first direct partnering of emergency responders with university professors/researchers for UAV research. Bob McKee, DPR director and agency chief for Texas Task Force 1, serves as a principal investigator with Dr. Robin Murphy, Texas A&M University professor and CRASAR director. The partnership leverages the capabilities of top academic researchers and the preparedness and response expertise of TEEX, all existing within the A&M System.
“Being able to work directly and routinely with responders under conditions as near to a real disaster as one can get will allow the research to progress faster. This could only happen at Texas A&M,” Murphy said. “Normally we’d have to try to condense a year of work into one week of trials, and if something went wrong we’d have to wait months for another opportunity for responders or a demolished building to become available.”
McKee said, “TEEX has been actively involved in efforts to develop and adapt robots for search and rescue applications. Though working with the National Institute for Standards and Technology project to develop standard test methods for emergency response robots to collaborating with scientific researchers and commercial developers at our unique Disaster City® facility, we’re hoping to someday use small UAVs and other unmanned systems to help save lives.”
The grant will help enable emergency responders to take advantage of small “personal” UAVs being developed for the U.S. Department of Defense. Urban search and rescue operations can be more challenging than military peacekeeping operations as they can require assessment and analysis of damaged structures, hazardous areas, and other unique situations.
The idea for creating shared displays is a result of over a decade of research on rescue robotics by Murphy, who was recently named one of the most influential women in technology by Fast Company magazine. She has led UAV deployments at numerous disasters starting with Hurricane Katrina. Her work with Dr. Jenny Burke (a former graduate student currently with Boeing), based on CRASAR experiences with ground robots at the World Trade Center, showed that search and rescue specialists were nine times more effective if two responders—not one—worked together using a shared visual display.
The team expects to have an open source tablet interface for AirRobot and Dragan UAVs within 24 months that leads to a significant, measurable improvement in team performance as well as high user acceptance.
Contact for TEEX: Brian Blake Brian.blake@tamu.edu (O) 979-458-6837 (C) 979-324-8995
Contact for TEES: Pam Green p-green@tamu.edu (O) 979-845-5510 (C) 979-574-4138
Frequently Asked Questions about Roboticists Without Borders
Posted by Dr. Robin Murphy on November 21st, 2011 at 9:06 pm GMT+7
There has been significant interest in CRASAR’s Roboticists Without Borders program from potential members and from agencies. I’ve created a FAQ to the most commonly asked questions and added it to the RWB webpage. I’ll reproduce it here to make it easy to see in one place. If you have more questions, please ask!
Q. Doesn’t RWB compete with companies who make robots or undermine their market?
No! The point is that every response and recovery agency should have robots- but they don’t. RWB facilitates humanitarian use of robots, but also helps promotes robots and encourages adoption. Do the Doctors Without Borders compete with local doctors? No, because there aren’t any doctors where they go. Should there have been more doctors there? Absolutely. Same idea with robots.
Q. Who can join?
Anyone from anywhere can join to contribute equipment, expertise, or donations (or any combination!) using the standard membership form.
Agencies or other potential “users” can create a memorandum of understanding, add CRASAR to their vendor list, or otherwise set up a partnership as governed by their rules- there is no standard form because each agency is different.
Q. How much does it cost to join?
Nothing. But you do have to pay your way each year to a training event and make sure your robot has completed the applicable NIST standards.
Q. If my company or university joins, how often can we expect to go to disasters?
It depends. There is no guarantee that your technology or expertise will be called upon or that you will available if it is. There were 8 deployments of robots in 2010 to 7 incidents and many types of robots were used so we expect the trend to accelerate.
Q. Can my agency or institution create agreements with CRASAR in advance?
Yes, please. When CRASAR was at the University of South Florida, there was a memorandum of understanding with Hillsborough County Fire Rescue that allows CRASAR to be requested and reimbursed as part of the state response system.
Q. How is RWB funded?
RWB is funded by donations, by research grants to CRASAR (when applicable), research overhead from grants. A deployment will either draw from those reserves or be reimbursed by the requesting agency. While we clearly prefer to be reimbursed, CRASAR can generally cover travel costs so that agencies that are skeptical of robots have no financial disincentive to issue an invitation.
Because robots are new and disasters are possibly the most challenging application for robots, many of our members have grants that allow them to go to disasters- the way earthquake engineers do. Plus the National Science Foundation has Rapid Response Research grants that we can apply for. CRASAR has been generally successful in getting these grants- one was for using UAVs to assess damage to buildings from Hurricane Katrina and the human-robot interaction model that resulted was used by the UAV team at Fukushima.
Q. What is the relationship between CRASAR and RWB?
CRASAR is the center that is responsible for RWB. CRASAR does more than RWB but RWB is a major activity.
Q. CRASAR has an equipment cache, does that mean those robots are the best or will be used first for a disaster?
CRASAR maintains a cache of robots for research that can also be used for deployments. Because these robots must support research, which not all commercial systems do, AND because every disaster is different, the CRASAR cache does not necessarily represent the best match for every incident. It is hoped that the RWB membership will have the best match.
Q. Who/how decides what RWB equipment or members participate in a disaster?
Technically, the buck stops with the director. But generally as soon as a disaster happens, the land, aerial, and marine leads will begin assessing the needs and making recommendations and contacting members to see what they think and what’s available and it generally converges quickly to a consensus. The CRASAR Advisory Board reviews the recommended deployment plan.
Q. Can my agency request RWB participation in an incident (smaller than a disaster) ?
Yes. Members typically welcome the opportunity to work directly with users and get their feedback.
Q. Can my agency request RWB participation in an exercise?
Yes, please! CRASAR offers 2- and 4-hour hands-on awareness classes and a 10 hour operator class to introduce groups to rescue robotics. We will often provide a class and robots at no expense in return for being able to collect data from the responders as they use the robots in their exercise. We’ve trained over 400 responders and emergency managers to date.
CRASAR Roboticists Without Border member in press…
Posted by Dr. Robin Murphy on November 17th, 2011 at 8:01 am GMT+7 – Updated: February 20th, 2013 at 7:20 am GMT+7
