‘Send the robots in first’: Unmanned devices sent to search

The precarious nature of navigating the multilayered mound in the search for Champlain Towers South survivors could mean danger for human rescuers. So robots are helping out.

“The idea behind our systems is, send the robots in first,” said Tom Frost, vice president of unmanned ground solutions at Teledyne FLIR, formed when Teledyne Technologies acquired FLIR Systems earlier this year. “They’re exactly the right tool to send into unsafe situations.”

“FLIR” stands for “Forward Looking InfraRed” and, over the weekend, Teledyne FLIR sent at least two small unmanned devices to the Surfside collapse scene, equipped with thermal sensors and 360-degree camera views that can help in finding humans. They’ve previously helped authorities in hostage situations, the World Trade Center collapse on 9/11 in 2001 and mass shootings. They can also disable bombs.

Frost said they’ve sent two different robots: the PackBot 510, about the size of a suitcase, and the FirstLook, about the size of a brick.

They both have a rugged outer surface that can climb over uneven surfaces and are linked with encrypted radio frequency, so they can travel far without losing the signal. The smaller device in particular can fit in smaller spaces without risking first responders’ lives.

“When we responded to the 9/11 tragedy we took the systems down,” Frost said. “The PackBot was brought down and we used that primarily for searching the buildings on the periphery of the World Trade Center.”

Frost said they’ve made the devices available to all of the law enforcement departments that have responded to the Surfside tragedy. The company also sent one operator to help rescuers use the robots.

“We built these systems,” Frost said, “so that we can save lives.”