Disaster Robotics

This book offers the definitive guide to the theory and practice of disasterrobotics. It can serve as an introduction for researchers and technologists, a reference foremergency managers, and a textbook in field robotics. Written by a pioneering researcher in thefield who has herself participated in fifteen deployments of robots in disaster response andrecovery, the book covers theory and practice, the history of the field, and specific missions.

After a broad overview of rescue robotics in the context of emergencyinformatics, the book provides a chronological summary and formal analysis of the thirty-fourdocumented deployments of robots to disasters that include the 2001 collapse of the World TradeCenter, Hurricane Katrina, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the 2011Japanese earthquake and tsunami, and numerous mining accidents. It then examines disaster roboticsin the typical robot modalities of ground, air, and marine, addressing such topics as robot types,missions and tasks, and selection heuristics for each modality. Finally, the book discusses types offieldwork, providing practical advice on matters that include collecting data and collaborating withemergency professionals.

The field of disaster robotics has lacked acomprehensive overview. This book by a leader in the field, offering a unique combination of thetheoretical and the practical, fills the gap.

Robin R. Murphy is Raytheon Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University and directs the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue (CRASAR). An IEEE Fellow and a founder of Roboticists without Borders, she has worked in disaster robotics research and deployment since 1995.