German Rescue Robotics Center (DRZ): A Holistic Approach for Robotic Systems Assisting in Emergency Response

To meet the challenges involved in providing adequate robotic support to first responders, a holistic approach is needed. This requires close cooperation of first responders, researchers and companies for scenario-based needs analysis, iterative development of the corresponding system functionality and integrated robotic systems as well as human-robot teamwork support, and experimentation, system testing and evaluation in realistic missions carried out with or by first responders. We describe how such a holistic approach is implemented by the partners in the cooperative project A-DRZ for the establishment of the German Rescue Robotics Center (DRZ). The A-DRZ approach addresses important requirements identified by first responders: Adaptation of operational capabilities of robotic platforms; robust network connectivity; autonomous assistance functions facilitating robot control; improving situation awareness for strategic and tactical mission planning; integration of human-robot teams in the first responders' mission command structure. Solutions resulting from these efforts are tested and evaluated in excercises utilizing the advanced capabilities at the DRZ Living Lab and in external deployments.