RAPID: Sendai Earthquake and Tsunami- Remote Assessment Using Land, Sea and Aerial Unmanned Systems

Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, College Station TX

Investigators

Abstract

Proposal #: 11-35848 PI(s): Murphy, Robin Institution: Texas A&M University Title: RAPID: Sendai Earthquake and Tsunami- Remote Assessment Using Land, Sea and Aerial Unmanned Systems Project Proposed: This RAPID project proposal, consisting of participatory research with land, sea, and aerial unmanned systems for remote assessment and situation awareness for critical life saving and recovery operations in the aftermath of the Sendai earthquake and tsunami, will capture and analyze valuable data on the effectiveness of various robots for recovery and inspection as well as user interface paradigms. The researchers will be engaged in some of the following activities: - Participate in the ongoing recovery efforts in the Sendai region and northward - Gather data on the effectiveness of various robots in various real-world scenarios - Gather data on the effectiveness of various user interfaces for remote devices during the recovery process - Deploy the RESPOND-R mobile instrument (NSF MRI grant CNS-0923203) to inspect critical infrastructure The PI has secured invitations from Japanese researchers and responders, including the International Rescue Systems Institute, to bring robots to the north of Japan to assist in the inspection of critical infrastructure and other recovery operations as well as perform research on the efficacy of emergency response methods and practices. (The search and rescue phase has been terminated.) US and Japanese response teams will be deployed for victim and economic recovery decision-making while simultaneously collecting never-before-possible, ephemeral data. The Sendai disaster is unique in its large geographical and economic scale and types of damage. The geographical, damage, and economic scales drive the need for distributed decision-making, where experts will have to consult and work at a distance using remotely acquired data. Sendai also provides the first opportunity to create a corpus from multiple modalities of unmanned systems being used by the same agency. Of the 15 deployments since the first use of rescue robots at the 9-11 World Trade Center collapse, only two, Hurricanes Katrina and Haiti, used both sea and aerial vehicles; notwithstanding, these were controlled by different organizations for tasks by different agencies preventing a longitudinal survey of what works (or does not) for decision-makers and why and how assets should be coordinated. Broader Impacts: This proposal promises an immediate benefit to society by supporting life saving and economic recovery efforts in Japan through a participatory research paradigm. There are also long term benefits for future disasters since emergency response and unmanned systems are both formative domains and the data collected will advance the discovery and understanding of intelligent, human-centered systems in unpredictable situations. The PI is a woman who is well known as a role model for recruiting women and minorities; the data from this project will be integrated into her numerous museum, documentary, K-12, and general public education events. Data gathered by the NSF-sponsored RESPOND-R mobile distributed instrument for response research will be organized into an ontology and made available as appropriate given the sensitive nature of video footage.