In recent years, application of robots in disaster environments has increased. This trend is fueled by robots becoming more sophisticated in both hardware and software capabilities, offering functionalities beyond the abilities of human rescue workers, as well as helping to reduce human rescue workers exposure to dangerous environments.

However, despite these technological advancements, deploying such robots in a real-life disaster environment and have them effectively collaborate with humans remains a real challenge. This is partially caused by the fact that it is currently unclear for rescue organizations what can and cannot be expected from rescue robots, due to the rapid development in the field. As such, to ensure effective uptake of these new technologies, a vital part remains extensive testing with end-users.

The TRADR project develops robots for robot-assisted disaster response. In an iterative fashion, we test new technology with end-users under realistic conditions. In this talk I will provide an overview of the TRADR project and explain how we go from theoretical explorations to actual field deployment.

Inspirational talk, easy to follow for non-AI students, propedeuse level