Texas A&M engineers design interactive robots to rescue victims trapped at disaster sites

Rescue robots go where humans fear to tread, such as inside the wreckage of collapsed buildings or mines. Advised by a Pixar animator, Dr. Robin Murphy -- Raytheon professor in Texas A&M’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering -- and her students are working on a project with Stanford University to enhance rescue robots’ capabilities and interaction.

During simulations with trapped victims, Murphy said, "We realized that the robot was very creepy. So we added a new component that we call the Survivor Buddy, which is a head with a multimedia interface that can be used by responders and doctors but also allows the survivor to watch TV, talk with friends, and listen to music to pass the time."

Survivor Buddy has a microphone, Webcam, speakers, and a computer screen that displays streaming video and provides a full Web interface. The Survivor Buddy unit mounts on shoe box-size Inuktun robots commonly used in disasters. Its face, a 4¼-by-5½-inch touch-screen monitor, can maintain eye contact, nod, and show surprise, sadness and happiness in comforting victims. The head folds flat to stay out of the way until the robot finds a survivor.

Murphy has used ground, air and sea robots at sites including the World Trade Center (2001); La Conchita, Calif., mudslides (2005); Crandall Canyon, Utah, mine cave-in (2007); Berkman Plaza II (2007) and the Cologne, Germany, archives building (2009) structural collapses; and hurricanes such as Katrina (2005) and Ike (2008).

To support research and academics in the College of Engineering at Texas A&M, contact Don Birkelbach ‘70 at (800) 392-3310.

This article was originally published in the Summer 2010 issue of Spirit Magazine. Click here to read the full issue of Spirit. Click here to read the full issue of Spirit.