The Palo Alto Research Center, or PARC is studying how small robots can venture where humans cannot go to search for survivors of earthquakes, collapsed mines and other disasters.

The robots have “learnt” to negotiate the debris, find the bodies –which generate heat, and communicate their location. Some are equipped with microphones to record sound, digital cameras and sensors to map the site and wireless gear to communicate with each other.

But Bill Smart, an assistant professor at the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis, says it is tougher to persuade rescue workers in real disaster situations to experiment with robots.

“I know lots of firefighters are very excited about this. But there is an institutional reluctance. They want something that works.”

From Mobile Robotics Sun Herald.