ICARUS: European Union Moves Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue Forward!

I had the pleasure of attending the ICARUS project’s final demonstration in Brussels Belgium as an advisor. ICARUS is the European Union funded project “Integrated Components for Assisted Rescue and Unmanned Search operations” which you can read about at here.  The demonstration was quite the success and the entire project has my greatest admiration! Just … Continue reading “ICARUS: European Union Moves Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue Forward!”

Update: Flooding disasters continue to mount casualties and challenge response efforts

We are working with our partner the Lone Star Unmanned Aerial System Center, one of the 6 FAA test centers, to help support the flooding response and recovery efforts for the Texas floods. The floods are a sad example of how flooding costs the U.S. more than 80 lives and $8 billion in damages each … Continue reading “Update: Flooding disasters continue to mount casualties and challenge response efforts”

Flooding and small UAVs

At this time, we aren’t involved in the horrible Texas and Oklahoma flooding. But we’ve been studying flooding since our deployment with Hurricane Charley in 2004. This blog will give a short background on what we do here at A&M and the upcoming 2015 Summer Institute on Flooding, then the history of small UAVs for … Continue reading “Flooding and small UAVs”

Nepal: disaster robots and earthquakes- history and uses

Our thoughts and prayers to the victims, families, and responders in Nepal where CNN is reporting over 777 people killed. Here is some information about how disaster robots have and can be used. Uses: the primary use of disaster robots in 8 previous earthquakes have been to give authorities and experts rapid understanding of the … Continue reading “Nepal: disaster robots and earthquakes- history and uses”

Vanuatu: How disaster robots have helped in 12 similar events and might help there

I’m here at the UN World Disaster Conference where word of the destruction in Vanuata is coming in and our thoughts and prayers go to out the victims and families. It sounds like the effort is on humanitarian relief.  I’m not seeing any discussion of mitigation/response/recovery of critical infrastructure, which is the historical focus of … Continue reading “Vanuatu: How disaster robots have helped in 12 similar events and might help there”

Pleurobot is salamander-like robot with lifelike motion

A video showing “multimodal locomotion in a bioinspired robot” has been making the rounds, and the video demonstrates advances in robotics as scientific tools as well as potential robots for search and rescue operations. Its name is Pleurobot. According to the video notes, the Pleurobot is being developed by the BioRob at EPFL and NCCR … Continue reading “Pleurobot is salamander-like robot with lifelike motion”

Thoughts on what the proposed FAA SUAS rules mean for search and rescue

by Brittan Duncan with Robin Murphy Here are our notes on the recommended rules, which are currently open for public comment and are not in force, and how they might impact public agencies, especially fire rescue.  Current operations should still be run under the existing COA process for public agencies. Also, even though the rules … Continue reading “Thoughts on what the proposed FAA SUAS rules mean for search and rescue”

Emergency Management Magazine…

There’s nothing like appearing on the home page of Emergency Management Magazine to trigger a “holy cow, I haven’t been keeping up the blog!” It’s been hugely busy here between working with students colleagues, and industry partners on creating use cases for robots for Ebola and other infectious diseases with a grant from the National … Continue reading “Emergency Management Magazine…”

Drones evaluated in Australia for fighting bush fires

The Australian Rural Fire Service (RFS) is carrying out trials this fire season with “spy in the sky” unmanned aircraft and drones to evaluate their use to monitor fires for extended periods and to provide early data in the first minutes of arriving on the fire ground. One test is to likely to take placed … Continue reading “Drones evaluated in Australia for fighting bush fires”

More About Our Workshop on Safety Robotics for Ebola Workers Nov. 7-8

Texas A&M is one of the four sites co-hosting a OSTP/NRI Workshop on Safety Robotics for Ebola Workers. Our workshop will be November 7-8, with November 7 coordinated with the other three sites and November 8 as a follow-on at Disaster City specifically on technology transfer. We are still working on the agenda, but attendance is … Continue reading “More About Our Workshop on Safety Robotics for Ebola Workers Nov. 7-8”