Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Path: brunix!uunet!usc!news.bbn.com!noc.near.net!gateway!pictel!wpns
From: wpns@pictel.com (Willie Smith)
Subject: Re: Search and Rescue robots
Message-ID: <1992Feb24.161225.6297@pictel.com>
Keywords: search rescue
Organization: PictureTel Corporation
References: <1992Feb20.215905.29987@slate.mines.colorado.edu>
Date: Mon, 24 Feb 1992 16:12:25 GMT
Lines: 18

cweissha@retha-frnkln.Mines.Colorado.EDU (Chad R Weisshaar) writes:
>I am researching the possibility of using robots to replace people in  
>search and rescue operations.  I am relatively inexperienced in robots and  
>would like any information concerning the capabilities of current robots  
>regarding the ability to climb over rubble, climb ladders, open damaged  
>and undamaged doors and capability of robots sensors to find the injured  
>people.

For this application, no robot or teleoperated vehicle is going to be
anywhere near as flexible, capable, insightfull, or useful as a human.
If the environment is hazardous, teleoperations might have some
limited utility, but current-day robots just can't perform this kind
of work in an unstructured environment of the type you describe.

Willie Smith
wpns@pictel.com


