China earthquake: Drone on-site plus other ways robots can help.

Posted by admin on Aug 04, 2014 at 1:53 pm America/Chicago

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PpKtrll7Gg[/youtube] The death toll continues to rise in China's Yunnan Province earthquake and our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, families, and responders.  The Chinese Army is already using drones to provide responders (as well as geologists and hydrologists) with assessment of damage in the remote, rural areas. In general, ground robots are not terribly useful in earthquakes unless there are significant building collapses where canines can smell survivors but robots are needed to crawl in spaces that responders and canines can't get in.  Unmanned marine vehicles can be useful in help inspecting the underwater portion of bridges and rapidly determining river channels are open so that ships can bring in supplies.  So while robots are unlikely to directly save lives, they fulfill their goal of helping the responders help the survivors!