This semester my intro programming students are doing a very scaled down model of how search-and-rescue robots might very stupidly explore a space while trying to keep themselves from clumping up with each other. It’s a first programming course for most of them, so have I mentioned that these simulated robots are very stupid.
However, since I’ve been playing around with their project, I seem to be seeing interesting content about search and rescue robots cropping up all over the place:
Last week (on April 23rd), there was a great NASA JPL livestream of a talk on Rescue Robots focusing in particular on RoboSimian.
A prototype of a new robot assistant to guide firefighters through buildings to aid with search and rescue was demonstrated.
Sadly, a shape transforming robot got stuck inside a Fukushima nuclear reactor while trying to investigate the state of the plant to help with decommissioning.