Robot snakes searched for Venezuela earthquake survivors in collapsed buildings

The return and plans for the future

The snakebot team eventually had to return to the United States without finding a survivor. But nearly 6,500 people were rescued with the help of search and rescue teams from all over the world.

By coincidence, Choset ended up having a lengthy conversation with a woman whose husband, a security guard, was buried for eight days in the collapsed basement of a shopping center. He described himself as overjoyed when he later learned that the woman’s husband had been pulled out alive.

“She had two kids, and the age difference was the same as my two boys, so it hit home for me there,” Choset told Ars.

The Carnegie Mellon researchers have several ideas for how to improve the snake robot for possible future deployments. One of their priorities is to attach light-based sensors that can help perform 3D point cloud mapping of a snakebot’s environment—giving the robot operator and search and rescue teams a better sense of how to steer the robot beneath collapsed buildings.

Following their return, the team members also wrote up notes about their experiences to compile a to-do list for any unexpected journeys in the future. “The big thing is what to pack and how to pack,” Choset said.

The snake robots are still very much research prototypes rather than operational tools for search and rescue. But Choset credited his team’s prior experiences and training on search and rescue scenarios using the snakebots, which included cycles of breaking and fixing the robots to improve them. He also highlighted his lab’s philosophy of taking the time and energy to build robust robots capable of working reliably beyond a few research demonstrations.

“My students and staff took the attitude of, ‘Let’s make sure these are robust systems as much as possible,’” Choset said. “So that when we’re doing our research, we’re not constantly fighting with the robot to get things to work.”