[Lecture Notes by Prof Yuen and possibly others 2000-2001] New York Times September 27, 2001 Agile in a Crisis, Robots Show Their Mettle By JENNIFER 8. LEE T HESE rescuers are unaffected by the carnage, dust and smoke that envelop the remains of the World Trade Center. They are immune to the fatigue and heartbreak that hang in the air. They are, literally, robots: small, mobile machines that whir, blink and burrow alongside the emergency workers and rescue dogs, combing the debris. In one of the first uses of robots in an urban search and rescue operation, about a dozen remote-controlled machines have been employed at the disaster site. Ranging from the size of a shoe box to that of a medium-size suitcase, they crawl in, under and around the twisted steel and crushed concrete, guided by human operators on the surface. Using lights, video cameras and sensors, they search for victims in places where human rescuers cannot or dare not go. The robots are a motley crew, rushed to New York by military and federal disaster units, private companies and a university. They are not sleek, Star Wars-style androids, but short, squat and decidedly utilitarian in appearance. Many resemble miniature tanks, right down to the caterpillar treads that allow them to climb over all kinds of rough surfaces. Most of the robots are experimental prototypes financed by sources like the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research. While some were built from scratch, others are customized versions of commercially available robots. They were designed originally for tasks as varied as military reconnaissance, defusing explosives and safety tests at nuclear and chemical installations. Some were brought out of retirement after the Sept. 11 attacks. "Everyone that physically saw them was impressed by the technology," said Lt. Col. John Blitch, an Army robotics expert who coordinated the teams. "The Fire Department loved them." The robots provide a glimpse of what future rescue operations might be like, with many more machines than humans sifting through the wreckage at earthquake sites or other disaster sites. Similarly, robots like these could one day explore urban environments contaminated by radiation or chemical or biological agents. And they may one day aid police officers, paramedics and firefighters in more common daily emergencies. Some of the robots being used at the Trade Center site are small and compact enough to go down sewage pipes or other conduits that are less than a foot in diameter. Others can flatten themselves to squeeze through tight spaces or position themselves upright to look over objects. Some have infrared cameras and all have video cameras, with images sent to rescue workers on the surface through a cable or wirelessly. Rescue workers use the images to determine if an area of the rubble is worth further exploration and if so, whether that can be done safely. "We are an extension and a tool of the human rescuer," said Arnis Mangolds, vice president of Foster- Miller, an engineering and technology development company near Boston that manufactures two of the models of robots used. "We are not replacing them. We're trying to keep them out of harm's way." On the afternoon of Sept. 12, a small robot called a MicroTrac crawler located a pocket of rooms that had remained largely intact under a pile of debris. Emergency workers then uncovered the rooms and a firefighter was sent down. Several bodies were found. Since then robots have located the full or partial remains of other victims and have surveyed three damaged buildings near the Trade Center site. Because some of the bodies inside are buried deeply, it may be several weeks before rescuers can retrieve them. Some of the robots were developed or customized through the Tactical Mobile Robots program of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa, an arm of the military that finances technological research and development. The Tactical Mobile Robots program is partly the vision of the agency's former director, Colonel Blitch, who took part in rescue efforts after the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995. After witnessing how difficult it was for humans to maneuver safely through the debris, he became convinced of the need for small, agile robots. "I saw a lot of situations where we had a hard time penetrating into narrow void spaces and conduits," he said. At the time he was a graduate student at the University of South Florida in Tampa studying with Robin Murphy, an associate professor in computer science and engineering who does robotics research. He returned to school to tell his adviser that there was a humanitarian need for robots. Since then, both have increasingly focused on rescue and recovery robots Colonel Blitch through the Darpa program and Dr. Murphy at the university. Only days before the Sept. 11 attacks, the agency's three-year-old Tactical Mobile Robots program had retired its first generation of robots by donating them to the National Institute for Urban Search and Rescue, a nonprofit organization based in Santa Barbara, Calif., that focuses on improving disaster response. Colonel Blitch, who was planning to move to Colorado to lead the institute's new Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue, still had the robots stored in the basement of his house in Washington. After the two planes hit the World Trade Center, he packed the robots into his car and called other robotics teams as he drove to New York. With all nonmilitary air traffic grounded, representatives from Foster-Miller and iRobot, another robotics company, drove down from the Boston area. Dr. Murphy and three graduate students drove 18 hours from Tampa. The military's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command brought in robots from San Diego. The robotics teams converged in Newburgh, N.Y., about 60 miles north of the city. The prices of the robots start at $15,000 to $30,000 and can climb much higher depending on the number and types of sensors and other features they have, including two- way audio and night vision. The small MicroTrac crawler and the briefcase-size Micro Unmanned Ground Vehicle, which were brought by Colonel Blitch, are customized versions of robots made by Inuktun, a company based in British Columbia. Foster-Miller had two robots at work: the Solem, which is about the size of a shoe box, and the Talon, which has arms and pincers. The Packbot, manufactured by iRobot, features flippers that allow it to climb stairs and hills. Urbots, which were brought by the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, can function upside down. Some of the robots were removed from the site on Friday as search and rescue operations wound down. Some were brought back on Monday, however, to aid in what has become more of a recovery operation. Military officials have also ordered more robots from Foster-Miller and Inuktun. This early deployment of the robots has alerted researchers to features that are needed but not yet developed. For one, temperature sensors are important when penetrating burning rubble. Dr. Murphy said that a robot that was sent into the depths of the rubble lost its rubber treads, probably because they were melted by the fires smoldering under the debris. Mr. Mangolds said that the robots needed to be less rather than more sophisticated so that they will be easier to use. Researchers say it will take at least another two to three years for the search and rescue robots to become widespread. "We're doing O.K. with the technology, but its still very much in its infancy," Dr. Murphy said.