Rescue Robots: Types and When They Can Help
The number of natural disasters keeps growing. According to the UN, since 1970 the number of catastrophic events worldwide has increased fourfold. Sometimes disasters are so vast and severe that it is impossible to send people in to provide first aid. Increasingly, in such situations, robotics comes to the rescue.
Rescue robots can fly, swim, make their way through rubble, put out fires and help emergency services solve problems in many other ways. Over the past decades, these technologies have advanced significantly. Scientist and roboticist Robin Murphy believes the main problem with rescue robots is that people are insufficiently aware of them.
Here are 12 examples of rescue robots that help on land, at sea and in the air.
Water Rescue Robots
Many water rescue operations take place in conditions so dangerous that people risk serious injury or death:
- a car can get stuck in rapidly rising flood waters;
- a strong current can carry away a swimmer;
- ice can crack underfoot and plunge a person into icy water.
Water rescue robots can go where people find it hard to reach. The following companies develop water rescue robotics:
HYDRONALIX
The Emergency Integrated Lifesaving Lanyard (EMILY) from Hydronalix is a remote-controlled robot 1.2 m long and weighing 11 kg, acting as a hybrid rescue boat. Little was known about it until 2016, when the robot helped save hundreds of refugees off the coast of Greece during the European migration crisis. In the first 10 days of use alone, EMILY helped more than 240 people.
The US Office of Naval Research, together with the Small Business Innovation Research office and Hydronalix, developed a robot that can move at 35 km/h, carry up to five people and withstand strong waves and various impacts thanks to its reinforced hull. Researchers are trying to make EMILY more autonomous using drones and thermal sensing technology. The main goal is to reduce the human factor.
VIDEORAY
The VideoRay search and rescue system is equipped with remote control. This small underwater vehicle, operated via video and joystick, uses powerful lights, sonar, GPS and metal detectors to assist rescue operations.
The search and rescue service of the St. Louis County Sheriff's Office (Minnesota, USA) has long used this robot. Once, a man fell through the ice of a frozen lake, and the remotely operated vehicle guided divers to him.
PLIANT ENERGY SYSTEMS
Pliant Energy's best-known robotic development is the Velox amphibian, which has a wave-like propulsion system and resembles prehistoric vertebrates more than typical rescue robots. Velox moves using silicone fins.
The robot can swim in water, travel over ice and push through snow, which makes it an ideal helper for delivering a rescue device to someone who has fallen through thin ice.
Urban Search and Rescue Robots
The iRAP robot team has won the main prize at the international RoboCup Rescue competition eight times in the 18 years since it began. The annual contest is not only a rivalry between manufacturers but also a measure of yearly progress in the field.
To evaluate the agility and mobility of these robots, the competitions include delivering supplies, moving through doors, crawling over rubble pits and wooden steps. The contest emerged from a tragedy: after the 1995 Kobe (Hanshin) earthquake, the Japanese government decided to promote research into disaster response in cities.
INUKTUN
After Eddyfi Technologies acquired Inuktun, building search and rescue robots is no longer its top priority. Still, it is worth recalling how these robots helped after devastating disasters in the US.
After the September 11 attacks, the New York City Department of Design and Construction used the Delta robot (then known as VGTV) for important inspections. Four years later, in Mississippi, a task force used camera-equipped scanners moving at 27 m/s to search for survivors in buildings that were too unstable for rescuers to enter.
BOSTON DYNAMICS
Atlas, one of the world's best-known robots, took its first steps in the DARPA Robotics Challenge, a competition for robotic machines designed to help rescuers cope with natural and man-made disasters.
The robot was designed to perform basic but potentially life-saving tasks in hazardous conditions: opening doors, shutting valves and switching on power equipment. Atlas is recognizable by its distinctive features, including lightweight hydraulics and 3D-printed parts.
IROBOT
After the Fukushima accident, the site served for many years as a testing ground for robot makers who could help assess and clean up after nuclear accidents. iRobot used several PackBots to assess the damage.
Remote-controlled robots proved invaluable during the first attempts to get a full picture of the damage inside reactors affected by explosions. They were also used to comb through the rubble after the September 11 tragedy in the US.
Today, PackBots are oriented mainly toward the military sector, where they are used to detect bombs and snipers and to defuse improvised explosive devices.
Firefighting Robots and Earthquake Helpers
Roboticists have developed helpers resembling snakes or grapevines to search for survivors after earthquakes, as well as autonomous Zebro bots that operate using a "swarm algorithm". Firefighting robots are even more widespread. For example, the Tokyo Fire Department has about a dozen different types of bots.
CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY'S ROBOTICS INSTITUTE
Researchers at CMU developed the Snakebot rescue robot, which is used in a variety of fields. It has assisted in archaeological excavations and inspected nuclear power plants. But its lead developer sees it primarily as a life-saving tool. The remote-controlled robot has more than 12 joints, allowing it to crawl and push through rubble where people cannot reach.
Rescuers can steer the snake-like robot through rubble thanks to a head-mounted camera, LED lights and laser distance measurement. Snakebot performed well after the deadly earthquakes in Mexico.
SHARK ROBOTICS
The fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral was an enormous loss in many ways, but things could have been much worse if not for the Colossus robot. The commander of the Paris fire brigade used it when conditions became too dangerous for firefighters.
Colossus has WALL-E-style tracks and the ability to pour 660 gallons of water per minute. The 500-kilogram robot literally saved firefighters' lives. It is operated with a joystick. The bot also carries firefighting equipment, transports the injured and runs a 360-degree high-resolution thermal camera to assess the scene.
HOWE & HOWE TECHNOLOGIES
The company makes two of today's most popular firefighting robots, the Thermite RS1-T3 and RS2-T2. Both are equipped with 25-horsepower diesel engines, remote control and tank-style tracks. The robots can climb slopes of up to 70 degrees and pour up to 2,500 gallons of water and foam per minute.
Modern firefighting robots are designed specifically to fight large industrial fires, such as fires at oil refineries.
Aerial Rescue Robots
Drones embody advanced flight technology. They are increasingly at the center of most airborne search and rescue operations and disaster prevention efforts.
Drones and UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) share several common features: laser and/or radar scanners for navigation, video cameras for recording and transmitting data, and thermal cameras for finding survivors.
MOUNTAIN DRONES
Each year, about 150 people die in avalanches, most of them skiers and other athletes. One of the most reliable countermeasures is a controlled avalanche, triggered with explosives when the mountain is empty.
However, controlled avalanches also carry risks: in France, two ski patrollers died because they did not get clear before the explosives went off. The startup Mountain Drones created a drone capable of carrying out precise avalanche-triggering explosions from the air.
DRONE PILOT
Former US Air Force medic and "pioneer of search and rescue drones" Jean Robinson founded Drone Pilot, a federally licensed drone certification course and a wide range of drone services, including help with searches.
The non-profit division Remote Pilot Search Services provided free help to families and organizations searching for missing loved ones. Robinson himself said: "When we made the first find, the family was so grateful. What we were able to do meant so much to them, and it completely changed my perspective. I knew I had to use this technology."
LOCKHEED MARTIN
The corporation is known for the F-35, the most expensive fighter jet in the world. For decades it has also developed fleets of autonomous unmanned systems, including submarine-tracking systems and reconnaissance UAVs.
There is also the K-MAX, an aircraft for delivering cargo, humanitarian aid and fuel to hard-to-reach places. Its 2,700 kg payload makes it an excellent tool against the annual threat of wildfires. In Australia, one of the unmanned K-MAX aircraft, the Indago drone, is used to fight fires.
