April 21, 2004
Small Robots for Rescue Operations
Wired has an interesting article on some robotic applications for rescue in difficult environments (read: collapsed structures). The interesting point that the article makes is that control and location of the robots becomes very difficult as soon as the number exceeds approximately 3 per operator. Thus cooperation becomes an increasingly important area of research.
Robots designed for emergency rescue work can survive a six-story drop onto collapsed, jagged concrete. They can be thrown 100 feet into a disaster site. They can even cope with poisonous chemicals, fires, freezing temperatures and floods. But, like most rugged individualists, they don't play well with others.
When robots are set loose at a rescue site, the situation can become chaotic quickly, which lessens the advantage of having a swarm of robots to help human rescuers. There's no way for the robots to coordinate their activities autonomously. A human operator must control them individually, making robotic searches less efficient. Right now, even with state-of-the-art technology, rescue robots essentially lose interest in their tasks when left on their own. They simply wander off or shut down.
To translate the human concept of teamwork into electronics, three teams of university researchers are working together to develop technology that would turn a pack of robots into a single machine.
Posted by elkaim at April 21, 2004 5:00 PM