Researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev won a grant to develop software to control an operational robot that will help in disaster-stricken areas

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is the only institution outside the United States that was chosen to lead a team and was awarded a grant worth $375 for the six months of the challenge.

Researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev won a grant to develop control software for an operational robot that will help in disaster-stricken areas, as part of the Robotic Challenge program of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is the only institution outside the United States that was chosen to lead a team and was awarded a grant worth $375 for the six months of the challenge.

"Natural and man-made disasters have caused many damages to people all over the world both in the past, in the present and certainly in the future as well. The destruction that these disasters cause, such as the nuclear reactor disaster in Fukushima, Japan, the leaking of crude oil from huge tankers in the middle of the ocean and the collapse of the Copiapo mine in Chile, emphasizes the human frailty in these unobservable events. DARPA's robotics challenge program will help meet the need for response in these cases by developing robotic technology that will respond to disaster operations. This technology will improve the performance of the robots that function in difficult situations and field conditions that characterize disasters, and will also work in a simple way to be understood by experts and aid delegations who are not trained in the operation of the robot," reads the background to the challenge.

According to Prof. Hugo Gutterman from the department of electrical and computer engineering at the university and one of the team leaders, "the ROBIL team) is a one-time and unique association, led by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and composed of key experts in the field from the robotics industry in Israel (the Aerospace Industry and the Cognit company) ) and academia (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Bar-Ilan University and the Technion). The team includes 20 key people in the field as well as over 40 research students and engineers."