ABSTRACT
The use of robots for hazardous situations dates back to the Three Mile Island Nuclear incident (e.g., Pavelek 1985; Whittaker and Champeny 1987; Geifer et al. 1988). More recently, the impetus for rst response robots was spurred by the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City (Blitch 1996). This incident essentially resulted in a new eld of robotics focused on urban search and rescue (USAR) that then splintered into additional elds such as response for natural disasters, mining incidents, and CBRNE (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive) incidents. The rst well-publicized deployment of robots occurred after the World Trade Center incident on September 11, 2001. Since that time, both ground and aerial robots have been deployed by the thousands in recent military conicts and have seen growing deployments for civilian incidents.
