21 National Science Foundation grant that ever had the words ‘rescue robotics’ in it,” Murphy recalls. It might seem that the technology developed to overcome the long communication delays involved in deep space missions could be transferred naturally to difficult operations on Earth, but experience taught a different lesson. Complementarity “Our initial assumption was that our robots would all be autonomous, but one of our biggest research findings was that operations have to be co-operative. We call it human-robot complementarity,” Murphy says. Robin Murphy | In conversation Uncrewed Systems Technology | February/March 2025 Snake robot deployed to support Mexican Red Cross rescue workers. Small robots, including snake bots, are essential for crawling into small spaces and finding their way through rubble (Image courtesy of Carnegie Mellon University) This, she explains, is because disasters are so different from one another and the environment so complex. “You can’t even simulate the range of things that we continue to encounter, so you want the robot to be smart enough not to drive the operator up the wall with the minutiae of teleoperation, but at the same time you want the operator to be able to stop, assess and figure out what’s going on. “What’s really important is the people who are trapped more than 20 ft from the surface, because that’s where all of our tools fall apart unless you’re using a robot that can crawl in there. You’re talking small void spaces and people buried in rubble, so it’s not an environment we humans can walk around or even crawl in. “That is mechanically very, very hard. Perceptually, it’s very hard as well, because you’ve got all this dust suspended in the air, and as you move around you’re kicking up more, and there’s water everywhere. With the concrete dust it makes a nice, acidic slurry that eats away at your camera systems and mobility effectors.” In addition to the operator, construction engineers need access to the robot’s sensor feeds, as they need to work out what they are going to do if a survivor is found, as the average time to extricate someone is 10 hours, Murphy explains. This puts survivors at risk of crush syndrome, during which the sudden removal of pressure triggers potentially fatal shock and kidney failure unless the right drugs are administered at the right time. “Everything has to be super well-prepared, so it takes time.” Keep ‘em small Naturally, 9/11 was a major milestone in Murphy’s career. One of the key lessons was that military robots developed to enter buildings in search of enemy combatants (of which a number were made available) were too big. “You need small, shoebox-sized or snake-like robots,” she says. “It was only these that got used in the rubble pile.” Another lesson was that operators must be able to carry the robot and everything else they need in a backpack, and get to the scene on foot. And this lesson needs constant reinforcement, Murphy says. “We still, to this day, get people showing up to our exercises expecting to drive right up to the
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