CRASAR conducts basic and applied research in all aspects of rescue robotics with funding from DARPA, NSF, ONR, DOE, and SAIC. Rescue robotics is a new field and poses fundamental science issues in mobility, sensing, power, artificial intelligence, wireless communications and human-robot interaction. Although the center is physically housed at the University of South Florida, projects are also conducted with researchers from Carebridge, the International Rescue Systems Institute in Japan, Cal Poly, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Ohio State, Stanford, Texas A&M, and the University of Wisconsin. CRASAR is working with the University of Minnesota to establish an industry/university cooperative research center which would enable industry to join forces to conduct applied research in USAR and rapidly transfer results to the commercial sector.

CRASAR evaluates new robot, sensor, and software technologies for rescue robotics and helps establish standards for this new field. As a university-based center with income derived from the university and research, not from manufacturers, CRASAR is an independent source of information about rescue robots. CRASAR is also working with standards agencies such as the IEEE to establish standards for rescue robots, both core competencies and interoperable requirements for interchangeable payloads, so that a company or laboratory can develop a new sensor and it will work on any rescue robot. One example of evaluation is that CRASAR is conducting field trials with the Ford Motor Company's night vision sensor on behalf of the Office of Naval Research and USMC. As members of the rescue community, CRASAR has access to collapsed structures for realistic testing and other rescue professionals who can provide user feedback.

CRASAR maintains the only rescue robot response team in the world. The team is an independently deployable component of Florida Task Force 3 (Tampa Bay region) and is recognized by the United Nations International Search and Rescue Advisory Group. The team is composed of scientists and engineers formally trained as rescuers primarily through an MOU with the Hillsborough County Fire Rescue Department, as well as rescue professionals trained on robots. All members are volunteers, putting in hundreds of hours each year to earn and keep their certification. Together, the team members have participated in major events: the OKC bombing response, the earthquake in Turkey, and the WTC. Due to the extreme newness of rescue robots and the evolving deployment strategies, no rescue teams carry rescue robots, but instead would request CRASAR to co-deploy with them. The team uses its own cache of robots, has a truck and 28ft trailer, and can be ready to go with 4-hours. Three manufacturers, Inuktun Services, iRobot, and Foster-Miller, graciously keep their robots and engineers on call for an actual response.

CRASAR provides training, both to rescue professionals and to scientists, as well as K-12 and public awareness education. CRASAR has awarded over 250 certificates of completion to rescue workers for our rescue robots awareness course, which is most frequently offered in conjunction with Rescue Training Associates' CIDRE course. Prof. Murphy gives an average of 3 talks per year as an advocate of rescue robotics to rescue related organizations, reaching city managemers and chiefs of fire rescue departments, and has demonstrated the robots to Congress. CRASAR is also committed to training its own members in the latest USAR techniques. CRASAR provides the training and equipment needed to conduct field studies in rescue robots to scientists through a CISE-RR grant from the National Science Foundation. Most recently, CRASAR hosted a 1 day field training course for 31 participants, including scientists from Japan and Sweden, and the first IEEE Safety, Security and Rescue Robotics workshop. CRASAR also produces a newsletter aimed at the K-12 educators which provides general information and activities . Click here for more about CRASAR training for fire rescue teams.