Urban Search and Rescue Mission: The Use of Marsupial Robots

Tahzib Mashrik, A.S.M Muktadiru Baized, Lamia Iftekhar and Nova Ahmed

Marsupial animals are a group of mammals where the mother carries around its babies in a pouch (for example, kangaroos). Inspired by this idea from nature, the concept of marsupial robots is developed. We present a system that consists of a multi-terrain "mother robot" and smaller versatile "baby robots". The mother robot would carry in its interior the baby robots through a treacherous and rugged terrain to a central rescue location, while providing rapid, efficient and sheltered transportation. The baby robots can then come out and start urban search and rescue operation by locating and helping people from a collapsed or damaged structure, where it is risky for humans or rescue dogs to enter. Once the job of delivering the baby robots is complete, the mother robot acts as a "base station". It also has the task of transporting the baby robots back to safety after the search and rescue operation is complete. This paper presents a design of a mother robot and baby robot, suitable for urban search and rescue mission.