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>“There are lots of places that this would be useful that wouldn’t be right next to a person,” he says. “I do actually think this would be a solution to search and rescue"

Someone smarter than me tell me how this would be at all useful for search and rescue. I can't see it. If this thing, at a large scale, could be used, then so could a helicopter?

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I think the idea is to make a small robot to go through gaps in a collapsed structure. This could help figure out which pieces can be moved safely without causing further collapse.

Alternatively, if you can get water to trapped people you can greatly extend how long you have to rescue someone.

"Search and rescue" is the standard excuse anytime someone invents a nifty new robot. I would love to know how many robots are actually really used in search and rescue.

To be more precise, "search and rescue" is a euphemism for "warfare".

“We’ll use it to find people in building rubble” really begs the question of why the building is rubble in the first place

‘Search and destroy.’

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