Swarming robot teams to map, survey buildings.

• Author: Beidel, Eric
• Position: Defense Technology Newswire

* In the future, robots may be the true first responders.

University researchers are equipping small mobile machines with the brainpower to explore and map buildings on their own and relay relevant information to soldiers, firefighters or other personnel waiting outside.

The Army Research Laboratory's five-year Micro Autonomous Systems and Technology program is led by BAE Systems and leverages the work of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology University of Pennsylvania and California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Their ultimate objective is to enable small autonomous robots to deal with civilian and military challenges in confined spaces. Researchers envision "a collaborative team of tiny devices that can roll, hop, crawl or fly just about anywhere, with sensors that detect and send information back to humans," according to a Georgia Institute of Technology statement.

"There is no lead robot, yet each unit is capable of recruiting other units to make sure the entire area is explored," said Henrik Christensen, a professor at the Georgia Tech College of Computing. "When the first robot comes to an intersection, it says to a second robot, 'I'm going to go to the left if you...