As disasters like Fukishima have shown, there is a clear role for robotics in search and rescue.

NIFTi is a European project focusing on tasks in Urban Search and Rescue. It concerns human-robot cooperation in dynamic environments. Sharing of information via various interfaces is crucial for any human-robot cooperation and hence visualization of the robot's trajectory and other things, that robot has recognized during mission (cars, victims, etc.), is key for the robot operators.

NIFTi teams robots and humans doing tasks together, trying to reach a shared goal in rescue operations.   Each year, NIFTi evaluates its systems together with several USAR organizations. Rescue personnel teams up with NIFTi robots to carry out realistic missions, in real-life training areas.

Studies of using the robots with Google maps and cloud computing are also under way.  Fukishima showed the world that despite Japan's perceived robotics technical prowess, they were unable to deliver the goods when they were most required.  With developments like NIFTi and others, such as the snake-inspired robots from Carnegie Mellon, in the future robots will increasingly be used in rescue and relief operations.





www.nifti.eu

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