Survivor Buddy, a Friendly Robot Rescuer

Roland Piquepaille writes "The St. Petersburg Times, Florida, reports that a well-known robot designer, Robin Murphy, a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of South Florida (USF), 'plans to add a heart to robot rescuers.' As says USF, the goal is to develop 'a robot that will be a companion to a person who may be trapped after a car crash or in building ruins following an earthquake, or someone pinned down by sniper fire.' As said Murphy, 'robots can provide not only a sense of being a 'buddy' by playing soothing music or providing other entertainment, the robot also can be the audio and video link between survivor and family.' Murphy will develop this robot with some money coming from Microsoft. But read more for additional references and a picture of Murphy with her robot rescuers."

Comments

Re:I am not a child

[stuffeh]

Well, I don't see a cellphone being very reliable under much rubble, and radios usually don't get up and walk to where you call them.

If you're trapped in a cave where the entrance is blocked off by a 5 ton boulder, I don't see much for you to do, so talking/playing with a robot doesn't seem so bad to me. Especially since I would be hoping that the entire rescue crew is too busy to be digging me out of the situation rather than talking to my lonely self.

Seems like the parent poster just wants to snipe at Clippy.

Re:Uncanny vally

[cavePrisoner]

You always hear about people in life and death situations finding the sound of approaching helicopters (or whatever is rescuing them) to be the most pleasing sound they ever heard. Having it sound like r2 would be perfect. I don't think being patronized is your biggest worry if you're trapped under a building. Any sound at all that could mean that more help is on the way will be best thing they ever heard given that people sometimes spend days trapped under rubble after natural disasters.

Make it able to RECORD a message

[ofcourseyouare]

Don't have the robot SAY a message (which will of course almost certainly be absurdly inappropriate) let it RECORD a message. There are many examples of situations where people who knew they were trapped and going to die have left a message for their family. Such messages are of course disturbing for the loved ones, but also treasured. And by reminding a severely wounded person of the world outside, and of what they have to live for, making the recording might perhaps boost the person's will to remain conscious and survive. And even if they don't survive, making the message and feeling it would get to your family might help make the end less bitter.

Re:Nice Concept, Small Audience

[mdfst13]

I don't want a link to my family while I'm dying I think that this is intended for the times when your survival is in doubt, not when your death is sure. Part of the problem in these situations is that the people can give up and die, whereas if they struggled to live they would. It's about giving people reasons to continue to fight to survive at a time when they might decide that it is impossible.

Example: a person falls into a well and has to kick her or his feet to stay above water and breathe. After some time of this, the person is tired and may decide to stop kicking, sink, and drown. This kind of robot would act to find ways to encourage the person to continue kicking.

The sniper fire example also indicates this. Assume that you are in a location where the sniper can't reach you. So long as you stay there, you are safe. One danger is that you might get frustrated with waiting and leave safety. A robot like this could make the waiting more bearable by providing things that you can do other than stare at the walls.