NSF And 9/11 >> Searching for Victims
On Sept. 12, 2001, robotics expert Robin Murphy from the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue (CRASAR) was at Ground Zero.
Over the next 11 days, she and her CRASAR team from the University of South Florida (USF) helped search for victims of the collapsed World Trade Center towers. During those critical first days, the team guided the robots through five insertions into the rubble and debris.
Since the attacks, the CRASAR team has continued to help with emergency response, sending teams to Punta Gorda, Fla., following Hurricane Charley in 2004; the La Conchita, Calif., mudslides in 2005; and, most recently, in response to Hurricane Katrina as part of the new Safety Security Rescue Research Center.
This center is an NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Center that combines robotics and robotic vision research efforts from researchers in industry and at USF, the University of Minnesota, and undergraduate-focused colleges such as Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minn., and Berea College in Berea, Ky.
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