Ground Robots in Disaster Response – Why are they still not there?

In recent years, robot technology has become mature and therefore available to assist responders in their missions. Whereas unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are already widely deployed and almost used in daily routine, their ground-based counterparts are still hardly used in incidents yet. Once UAVs had become a very effective tool for reconnaissance in firefighting and rescue missions, authorities saw the lack of knowledge about their usage regulations and the need for proper training of responders on these devices. This paper presents a similar initiative to implement a training concept for firefighters on the regulation and usage of ground robots.