And they shall rise to protect the Human Race...

Robots are able to traverse where humans dare not, into disaster areas, both natural and man-made. Governments, universities, and corporations across the globe have been investing significant resources in developing robots to deal with the repercussions of floods, mining collapses, oil spills, nuclear outbrakes, and other industrial and natural disasters since the 90's.

Robots, in essence, have no need of environmental comfort. Their chassis unite forged metallic alloys with synthesized polcarbonates that empower them to resist tremendous physical exposure to heat or steam (no air circulation), direct force or high frequency radiation, while being flexible enough to move around conveniently.

The limit of TID (total ionizing dose - deterioration of electric/electronic equipments because of temporally accumulated amount of radioactive exposure - absorbed dose [Gy]) for human workers is legally defined as 100 - 250 Milli-Sievert [mSv]. If the safety factor is set to 0.1 Gy, 50 [Gy] and 20 [Gy] (the admissible limit of a robot) are 20-50 times and 8-20 times larger the admissible limit of human workers respectively.

Robotic devices have been employed in response to multiple Radioactive disasters: Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and recently in Fukushima, Japan. In Fukushima, Packbots were used to measure radiation levels and take pictures safely (see video below). As for chemical and oil refinement disasters, robots have been vital in managing environmental damages. Clean-up robots, with huge, deployable arms, are able to analyze and collect chemical leakages within disaster areas.

Robots entering Fukushima Reactor Building for the very first time:

In the medical field, robots have been developed to identify, analyze, and combat terminal diseases, such as cancer. Nano-robots, robots scaled to 10^-9 meters, are being developed to access and cure malignant cells through magnetic field targeting. A big advantage of this robotic technology is that it targets only the infected cells, without damaging healthy tissue (like chemotherapy).

Robots are morevover used to explore active volcanos, which is just another example of how robots have extended humanity's learning horizons.

Robots exploring a Volcano: 

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nbcnews.com/49552226#49552226

Below (left), a Hurt Locker-like bomb-disabling robot is pictured. Another example of how robotics has extended humanity's practical reach without endangering human lives. All of these robots have broken down environmental barriers, allowing humans to access realms previously inaccessible. Now just imagine what barriers robots will be able to overcome in the future.

This tactical hazardous operations robot, also know as THOR, is considered to be the robotic disaster response challenge (DRC) robot, par excellence. It not only facilitates the accomplishment of certain milestones in the prevention of disasters, but also pushes the entire field of robotic technology to its utter limits. At the end of the challenge, THOR should be able to perform the following tasks:

• Get into and drive a utility vehicle
• Walk across a rubble field
• Clear rubble blocking an entry
• Open doors and enter a building
• Climb a ship’s ladder
• Manipulate a power tool to break through a wall
• Locate and close a valve
• Carry and connect a fire hose

The business value of this technology manifests in the increasingly growing market and research & development found in this area. It seem that this technology not only provides a pruduct with respect to social responsibility or business ethics, but also from a pure return on investment point of view it seems to be beneficial.