Robot Training for Fire Rescue Teams Scheduled for Oct. 9-10, 2002, in Connecticut

Fire Rescue Workers Get Training on Rescue Robot Technology

October 2, 2002 – Tampa, FL.

The University of South Florida’s Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue (CRASAR) will participate in a 24-hour disaster response drill on Wednesday, October 9, 2002 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, with 200 rescue workers from all over the USA. Robots such as those used at the World Trade Center disaster site will be used in the drill. This is the first time rescue workers will have an opportunity to be certified in the use of rescue robots, marking progress since the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, which was the first use of rescue robots in the world. Newly developed medical sensors for determining whether victims are unconscious, but alive, versus dead will be demonstrated as well.

Members of USF’s CRASAR team who participated in the WTC response, led by Professor Robin Murphy, will serve as robot instructors, along with many of the other instructors who participated in the WTC response with the FEMA Florida Task Force 2 team. Several types of robots and sensors will be demonstrated, including the iRobot Packbot, recently used in Afghanistan. Footage of the robots at the WTC and recent exercises with the USMC Chemical Biological Incident Response Force are at www.crasar.org

The 24-hour drill is the culminating event of a four-day training sponsored by Rescue Training Associates, Inc. The event is to help fire rescue teams become familiar with new methods and technologies for real-world disaster situations, including robots. Approximately 150 firefighters will gain real-time experience in disaster response on a collapsed building site, including the use of robots for technical search and victim care. Two large H-shaped eight-story apartment buildings have been demolished to replicate various disaster site scenarios. Site operations will require the use of on-site heavy equipment (crane, bulldozer and forklifts), search & rescue teams/equipment, canine search teams and technical search equipment (robots, listening devices, search camera) to locate and remove victims buried within the rubble. This type of realistic training opportunity is rare, but its value became increasingly clear following the World Trade Center disaster. Not only will rescue workers be trained, but USF researchers will collect research data that will help them improve robot functioning, sensing technology and other vital functions.

The Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue is the international leader in research and development of rescue robots, and maintains a fully-trained response team, including equipment, emergency vehicles, and a 28 foot C-130 deployable trailer, on 4-hour readiness. CRASAR is located at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Prof. Robin Murphy is the director. CRASAR is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, DARPA, the Office of Naval Research, and SAIC, Inc. Additional information is available at www.crasar.org

NOTE TO EDITORS: The training session is open to members of the news media. Dr. Murphy and other participants in the World Trade Center disaster response will be available for interviews before and during the drill. Still and video photographers may get shots of rescue workers operating the robots in rubble with simultaneous views of the robots and the robot’s eye view of the rubble.

For more information:

Dr. Robin Murphy
Director, Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue
University of South Florida
murphy@csee.usf.edu
(813) 974-4756

Rescue Training Associates, Inc.
Paul Chestnut
Phone: (303) 235-4948
e-mail: newscorp@aol.com
RTA's webite: http://www.rescuetrain.com/

A press packet with directions to the site and times for media access are available from Paul Chesnut (contact information above).