Mark Micire makes it very clear: His robot did not rescue any victims of Hurricane Katrina. "We saw inside structures that would not have been able to be searched by a human," said Micire, 29 and president of American Standard Robotics in St. Petersburg. "It's as important to find where not to search as it is where to search." Many buildings were flattened, leaving no more than piles of rubble that rescue workers or dogs could navigate, Micire said. But some damaged buildings hung by a thread, where even a breeze might have caused them to tumble. So risking a robot, despite a $40,000 price tag, is safer than sending rescue personnel into those buildings.

The purpose of the AAAI-2002 Robot Rescue event is to challenge researchers to design useful robotic systems for urban search and rescue (USAR). The competition rules are written to simulate a real rescue response in a simulated disaster environment developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This article provides an overview of the current state of the art for USAR robotics, an overview of the AAAI-2002 Robot Rescue event, and a discussion of the future of the Robot Rescue event.