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Robots at Ground Zero

When planes piloted by terrorists slammed into the World Trade Center on September 11, America was, in an instant, forever changed. Giant steel beams twisted into unrecognizable debris, forming crevices unsafe for humans to search and possibly rescue the thousands missing.

That life-defining moment catapulted University of South Florida associate professor Robin R. Murphy and her lab of graduate students into motion. Murphy and three graduate students got busy packing and readying their innovative equipment: small robots to aid in urban search and rescue.

These shoebox-sized robots work as mobile platforms for cameras, heat sensors, microphones and lights. Murphy’s work has concentrated on a particular prototype of robot called a marsupial. Like kangaroos, they hang on to one another. One even has a pouch for carrying other robots. While one robot works as an electrical supply, the other is the navigator.

Funded primarily by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the robots have a “Star Wars” kind of appearance, with tire treads that allow them access to places inaccessible and unsafe for humans. Before Sept. 11, most of the world ignored robotics. Today, they are receiving worldwide attention for their abilities and efforts at the World Trade Center site.

Murphy was interviewed by the Today Show, ABC News, Newsday, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Popular Science and many other national and international media outlets. She has been asked to speak at the Emergency Information Infrastructure Conference at The Hague on an acceptable method of credentialing search-and-rescue robots.

Murphy discovered robots purely by accident back in 1992, while doing research as a graduate student on artificial intelligence. Since 1998, she has taught in the Computer Science and Engineering department at USF. She now holds a joint appointment in Cognitive and Neural Sciences in the Department of Psychology and directs the Perceptual Robotics Laboratory at USF.

On that tragic day in September, Murphy received a call from one of her former students, John Blitch, who now directs the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue. He suggested Murphy might be able to help out in New York City. She expected to meet in New York with National Institute for Urban Search and Rescue board member Raymond Downey, chief of the fire department's special operations section. Downey was familiar with Murphy and her robots and had given her standing approval to assist with such efforts.

However, Downey was among the workers killed when the twin towers collapsed. Murphy and her team drove 17 hours toward Ground Zero, with on-site coverage from National Public Radio punctuating the seriousness of their mission. They passed the still-smoldering Washington, D.C. as they whizzed up the Beltway. As word came of the deaths of countless firemen, Murphy feared the worst, but stayed focused on the task ahead.

“When we arrived, the first impression of New York was that of a fall, crisp night. The stars were out,” Murphy said. “As you got closer, it was literally covered in gray ash. Cars looked as if they were covered in snow. Tons of paper was jammed into building crevices. It looked like flocking on a Christmas tree, only the tinsel was Venetian blinds from windows of buildings that had been blown out,” she said, shaking her head. “It was like something out of Blade Runner.”

After security clearances and introductions, Murphy and her team set to work on the rubble. But they had an additional challenge of teaching anyone interested -- rescue workers, firemen and federal emergency teams -- what this new technology could do.

“We helped rescuers get a feel for the voids,” Murphy said.

Those voids, created by the melting debris, made them too dangerous for humans to search.

“There were concerns about collapses and temperature,” said Brian Minten, one of Murphy’s graduate students with an engineering background. “That’s where the robots proved their value.”

Using infrared sensors and cameras, the tracked vehicles were able to navigate through spaces off-limits to other rescue workers while sending crucial information to teams at Ground Zero. Data and video images transmitted back to rescue workers helped engineers craft search patterns and a plan for removal of debris.

The robots also have two-way audio capabilities, and the team listened carefully for cries of help, pounding or moans. That capability could also offer a way to assess medical needs, Murphy said. If a victim had needed medication or bandages, Murphy could have loaded those supplies on to a robot and sent them in until teams removed enough debris to access the victim safely.

“Using robots can help in the search and rescue decision-making process,” said Murphy, careful to point out the robots won’t replace human rescuers. The robots do, however, have the advantages of being tireless, immune from the emotional toll created by such unexpected devastation, unaffected by bioterrorism threats, and expendable.

And in New York City, the robots made a difference.

“Within eight hours, we found bodies,” she said. The USF group helped locate five bodies and one set of human remains, but Murphy’s quick to share the credit.

“We were just part of a broader effort to locate bodies and information,” she says of the 11-day assignment.

Galvanized by the bombing in Oklahoma City, which in 1995 toppled the Alfred P. Murrah building, robotic research has focused on the adjunct needs of search-and-rescue workers. At that grim scene, the destruction was dangerous even for the rescue dogs, some of which were outfitted with boots to avoid injury from collapsed glass and sharp debris.

When terrorists attacked America, Murphy and her team became the only university to assist in the first robot-assisted rescue effort at a federal disaster site. The work gave her team pause, she said. “It was all tinged with sadness,” she said.

The three-member team that accompanied Murphy made some sacrifices, sleeping on floors and eating only what provisions they had crammed into Murphy’s van.

“This has been an honor, and I received a lot of support from the university and my colleagues -- people covered my classes and pitched in to help enable me to do this,” said Murphy. “I have an exceptional husband, too.”

Both Murphy and Minten say the thrill comes from proving the human application of robotics. “We proved the ability of technology and humans to interface,” she said. Though robots were initially designed to help at earthquake sites, their worth was instantly obvious in New York.

“We’re proud of the promise this technology offers rescue workers, but there are changes and modifications we’re already working on,” said the energetic Murphy.

She and her team are sorting through their notes and about seven hours of video, searching for ways to improve the technology. Suggestions and modifications already under consideration include the addition of a temperature probe and air quality meters.

“We’re even looking at ways to make robots smarter,” she said. “We’d never seen rubble this bad before and, although we used night-vision methodology, it was humbling.”

The team is working feverishly with robot manufacturers to design more efficient and accurate models.

“We want to be ready,” said Murphy.

- story by Judy Silverstein Gray

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