Dan Goldman’s work in duplicating sandfish made it into Science News– a reminder of how biomimetic robots could make a real difference in disasters such as the New Zealand earthquake with its dense rubble. The responders continue to find survivors which is fantastic but are racing the clock. We wish we were there to help with more than our prayers- may all the survivors be found quickly, families reunited, and the recovery be quick!

Juan Rojas saw this about the severe flooding in Australia. Small unmanned marine vehicles, both surface (boats) and ROVs (underwater), can be of assistance in inspecting bridges for underwater damage or debris posed to crash into the substructure and damage the bridge– even in high currents and turbidity which prevent divers from manually inspection. CRASAR has used a AEOS USV at Hurricanes Wilma and Ike to inspect bridges and also experimented with ROVs and UUVs. Through funding from the National Science Foundation, we have a AEOS (called the Sea-RAI for Sea Robot-Assisted Inspection) on the ready for research and response.

Our UMV team (Robin  Murphy, Eric Steimle, Michael Lindemuth, David Trejo, Michael Hall, Daryl Slocum, Stefan Hurlebas, Zenon Medina-Cetina)  has an invited paper coming out shortly in the Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems on robot-assisted bridge inspection. A short version is here.

CRASAR’s connection in China, Dr. Juan Rojas, saw this about the Bello, Colombia landslide. Our sympathy and prayers for the victims and their families.

Landslides are tough for robots. CRASAR’s Sam Stover and I assisted with the 2005 La Conchita, California, mudslide which is described here. The short version of what we learned was that the land or mud fluidizes and becomes like water, filling every possible gap. Voids are rare and it’s not a matter of a robot penetrating dense rubble, it’s a matter of being able to be an earthworm and burrow into solid dirt.  “Regular” robots can help search collateral damage but aren’t going to be much use for the buried portions.

BUT GREAT POSSIBILITIES! After my Gegenheimer Lecture at Georgia Tech last week, I met with Dr. Dan Goldman who is working on robotic versions of sand lizards which can burrow. This was the first realistic hope I’ve seen for a robot that could quickly penetrate the soil and perhaps find one of those few voids with trapped air (and survivors). Plus Dr. Carolina Chang got involved in rescue robotics after the landslides in her country, so with this kind of focus perhaps we can improve the odds in the future.

It looks like the Chilean miners are close to be extricated! Great news and I wish I could be there, not only to cheer but also to learn more about how survivors communicate with “those above.” CRASAR was contacted about assisting with the search for the trapped miners, but the demands were even more extreme for a robot than at the Crandall Canyon, Utah, mine collapse so there was nothing workable. Fortunately the miners were found! Though with a long extrication time (months).

Cliff Nass, our partner at Stanford on the Survivor Buddy project, and I had always thought of victim management in terms of days, not weeks and months! We were hoping to actually go down to the rescue. We have been working on the topic of how trapped survivors can use social media communicate with responders and families and be less stressed for over 3 years. Cliff is a world expert in media– how people work with and through computers, television, radio, etc. – and so Cliff and I joined forces with funding from the National Science Foundation and Microsoft External Research to consider how trapped survivors, elders and shut-ins, etc. will use multi-media devices such as a robot ) that finds them or other media (ipods, tvs, videoconference). Dr. Cindy Bethel’s PhD thesis found that the way a robot is regularly used to investigate rubble and people is… well, creepy. Creepy to the point of causing measurable physiological stress.

Cliff and I offered our services to the Ministry through the National Science Foundation, though it sounded like the situation was well under control, and requested that we be allowed to collect data on how the miners are using media to communication, entertain themselves, etc., and what’s working/not working. For example, a news report said that the miners requested individual ipods but were denied so that they would stay together- that is certainly interesting to us, because it’s consistent with the miners trapped in the Beaconsfield mine and that everyone wants multi-media versus just talking to someone.  We wanted to see if we could get access to the “data stream” (or even make sure the data needed for social media research is collected), logbooks, or the response/support team- if only remotely as this data is vital to systems that would improve telemedicine or any situation where someone is isolated for long periods of time. Our focus on media (how) complements the psychological support to the miners and families (what and why)- which NASA helped advise them on.

We’ve just learned that after over a month of requests and processing, our request has been turned down. We’re trying to find avenues through local Chilean researchers (who have been terrific) and NASA to get access to the data through them– while there isn’t anything we can do for the miners, we believe there is valuable research and lessons to be learned for “the next time.”

No word on what UUV it is, but CNN is reporting that an underwater robot is being used to search for the two balloonists who went missing near Croatia on Saturday. Let’s hope the robot can help bring closure to this sad search…