Tohoku earthquake anniversity and UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction

Posted by admin on Mar 12, 2015 at 11:16 am America/Chicago

It is the 4th anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake and I am en route to Sendai where the United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction. It is sobering to think that over 18,000 people died and that the great nation of Japan is still recovering.  It makes it even more appropriate for Japan to host the conference and at Sendai. I look forward to seeing my colleagues from the International Rescue Systems Institute who we worked side-by-side with unmanned marine vehicles. I will be giving an invited talk on the current state and achievement of  disaster robotics during the Public Forum. In looking back between 2011 and now, the biggest surprise is that unmanned marine vehicles are not being used as much as I would have thought. The tsunami response and recovery showed the efficacy of these tools and how the can do in 4 hours what it take divers weeks to do (if they are available). There's no surprise in that unmanned systems are being used more frequently! I'll post the my findings when I give my talk-- no spoilers!