Dr. Jean Scholtz of the Information Access Division, was an invited participant in the National Science Foundation’s Computer and Information Science and Engineering project (CISE): Rescue Robots Project R4 (Research Robots for Research and Response). FEMA Indiana Task Force 1 hosted this event August 1-3, 2003 in Lebanon, Indiana. Dr. Robin Murphy, Director of the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue at the University of South Florida serves as the Principal Investigator for this NSF project. Dr. Scholtz was among sixteen scientists invited to observe and participate in a technical search exercise with man-packable robots in a realistic scenario. A building adjacent to the Lebanon Public Library scheduled for demolition was partially demolished prior to the arrival of the search and rescue team. The team spent 24 hours in continuous operation in the rubble, searching for victims (dummies placed in the structure) using the capabilities of the robots. The scientists were able to observe the activities of the FEMA task force as they incorporated robots into their normal search and rescue operations. The focus was on how the robots are deployed and their general operating conditions. This allowed scientists involved in research aspects of robotic search and rescue to see how the robots work in realistic conditions, how people interact with them, and what actual urban search and rescue (USAR) conditions are. Some of the participants brought along robots for the FEMA team to try out in these conditions. Dr. Scholtz was able to collect data on the conditions in which the robots are expected to perform as well as the tasks that response teams need the robots to perform. In addition, the researchers were asked to perform search and rescue tasks with the robots to obtain first-hand knowledge of using robots in USAR. Efforts such as this help in Dr. Scholtz’s research in evaluating user interfaces for robots used in search and rescue.
Contact: Jean Scholtz, ext. 2520