The Malaga University do a practical exercise with rescue robots and robot dogs that could replace the animals used in rescue operations in disasters, and that was shown on the occasion of the XVI Emergency Conference.
Are three robots dedicated to rescuing people in disaster situations, and they are so humanized that they have names: J8, Cuádriga and Rambler. They have been designed by the Robotics and Mechatronics group of the University of Malaga and today they have participated in a practical exercise carried out within the framework of the XVI Conference on Security, Emergencies and Catastrophesin which they have interacted with two robot dogs, a real one and a drone.
The exercise has been spectacular. The UMA Robotics group, in which more than 30 researchers collaborate, has been working on this type of robot since the year 2000, so during this time many technological advances have been incorporated into the devices.
Today they have demonstrated it in the Field of Experimentation of New Technologies for Emergencies of the UMA, located next to the School of Industrial Engineering. In addition to the wheeled ground robots from the UMA, the drone and devices from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, the company ALISYS and the company SDLE (Star Defense Logistics & Engineering) have participated in the joint exercise.
The joint coordination exercise was aimed at the search for victims by robot dogs and rescue dogforming a single team together with firefighters and staff from the Department of Emergencies.
The Robotics and Mechatronics Laboratory of the University of Malaga, integrated into the Department of Systems Engineering and Automation (ISA) -directed by Professor Alfonso García Cerezo-, pursues the integration of different engineering technologies with control methods, with the aim of in order to achieve practical applications and innovative commercial products.
The lines of research range from field robotics to surgery or space, but as far as rescue robotics is concerned, the approach is to respond to catastrophes by improving reaction time, enabling larger-range operations through deployment in unexplored areas that pose extreme risk to human search and rescue forces.
multidisciplinary exercise
The XVI edition of the Conference on Safety, Emergencies and Catastrophes, which has been held for three days at the School of Industrial Engineering of the UMA, has concluded today with the start-up of a great practical exercise with 15 scenarios in which that many other accidents have been simulated, in most of which the victims were people with disabilities.
Thus, there has been an evacuation of victims after an explosion, two helicopter rescues of people trapped after being crushed, the location of victims with rescue dogs and a bus accident, to give a few examples.
As every year, components of different security forces -civilian and military-, health and charitable organizations have participated in the conferences and in this macro emergency exercise. Among others, members of the UME, the Legion, the Civil Guard, Civil Protection, the Provincial Consortium of Málaga Firefighters, the Red Cross, 112, 061 and the Local and National Police were present.
