Institute for Safety Security Rescue Technology
University of South Florida
Information Technology Centered on Safety, Security, and Rescue
iSSRt is a State of Florida Type II center whose mission is to lead the way in innovating and propagating information and intelligent systems (unmanned systems,
computer vision, intelligent networks, sensors and perception, protocols and team processes) for the unique needs of homeland security and defense.
iSSRt is unique in its commitment to the entire R&D cycle of basic research, industry transfer through its NSF industry consortium, and field evaluation. Over 14 USF faculty are involved from three USF campuses (Tampa, St. Pete, Lakeland). iSSRt actively partners with other USF centers and universities to promote true multi-disciplinary work.
News
Groundbreaking for the National Testbed for Safety Security Rescue Technologies at USF.
Friday Feb. 22, 2008 at 10:30AM
Phase 1 of the testbed is a $2M multi-disciplinary facility designed specifically for rapid prototyping of ground and air robots,
sensors, and interfaces. It supports research and cooperative R&D, certification, and training programs with industry and
government. Funding for NT-SSRT is provided through a cooperative agreement with US Army Edgewood Chemical Biological
Center.
See a short video about the testbed here.
The testbed will house:
- a Sensor Laboratory for testing sensing in a variety of conditions, such as smoke, total darkness and rain
- a Collapsed Structure Laboratory duplicating the interior of building collapses and underground mine cave-ins
- a Unmanned Aerial Systems Laboratory for duplicating conditions for flying small UAS near buildings and urban canyons
- a Training Coordination Center, enabling the facility to be used to develop programs and to train homeland security and
defense professional, either on-site or over the internet
Dec 2007-Jan 2008: Assisted with Berkman Plaza II parking garage collapse.
Aug 2007: Assisted with Crandall Canyon Utah mine disaster.
Jul 12-13, 2007: Sea-RAI milestone met!
A group of 10 researchers and students demonstrated an iSENSYS rotary-wing micro air vehicle (MAV) launching from a small 6 foot long unmanned surface vehicle (USV) at the Pensacola Naval Air Station. This demonstration is a milestone in the Sea-RAI (Sea Robot-Assisted Inspection) project, which is expected to lead to teams of mixed-initiative robots for environmental monitoring, port security, disaster response and recovery, and military operations in littoral regions. The project is funded by the Office of Naval Research N00014010775 under the supervision of Dr. Behzad Kamgar-Parsi and is conducted in collaboration with the Institute for Human Machine Cognition and NAVSEA Panama City and two industry partners, iSENSYS (MAVs) and F4W (mobile ad hoc networks). The PIs are Drs. Robin Murphy (CSE, Tampa Campus), Eric Steimle (Env. Sci, St. Pete Campus), and Dave Armitage (IT, Lakeland Campus).
See coverage by CNN at http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2007/07/15/dnt.fl.war.terror.robot.wear
More information about Sea-RAI can be found at the projects website:
Sea-RAI Site
Announcements
Dr. Jim Tittle will be speaking on Aug 10.
Classes: Fall 06: iSSRt seminar will be held;
Spring 07: Introduction to Homeland Security Technology will be offered again as part of the Homeland Security Certificate program at USF.
Partnerships and Facilities
- National Testbed for Safety Security Technologies, a cooperative agreement with Edgewood Chemical Biological Center. A $2M facility for testing robots and sensors in extreme conditions at USF is under development and expected to be available to faculty and industry in 2007. USF faculty and scientists: Murphy (CS), Stover(SSR-RC) with Radiance Technologies assisting.
- NASA Ames Research Center Space Act Agreement. This agreement gives iSSRt access to the disaster assistance response team and facilities at NASA Ames.
- NSF industry/university cooperative research center on safety, security and rescue technology (SSR-RC). iSSRt serves as the USF site for this multi-university industry consortium. Our university partners are University of Minnesota, Carnegie Mellon, and University of Pennsylvania.
- Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue (CRASAR). CRASAR is a laboratory within iSSRt that conducts field research specifically related to unmanned systems for emergency response. CRASAR is often invited to insert technology during a disaster through agreements with Florida Task Force 3, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue, and the Florida State Emergency Response Team. It has many firsts in rescue robots, including the first use of ground robots (World Trade Center), first use of micro-aerial vehicles (Hurricane Katrina), and first use of unmanned surface vehicles (Hurricane Wilma).
Funding
- ONR: Coordinated Operation of Humans, Agents, and Unmanned Vehicles for Littoral Warfare with IHMC and NAVSEA-PC. USF PIs: Murphy (CS), Steimle
(Environmental Sciences, St. Pete Campus), Armitage (Info Sci, Lakeland Campus)
- ARL: Emerging Distributed Team Processes in Critical Environments with UCF, IHMC, and FAMU. USF PIs: Murphy (Computer Sci), Burke (iSSRt), Coovert (Psy) and Brannick (Psy)
- ARL: TAH-RI- Terrain Analysis for Human-Robot Interaction
with CHI Systems, an industry member of the SSR-RC. USF PIs: Murphy (CS).
- NSF: Safety Security Rescue Research Center USF faculty and scientists funded includes Armitage (Info Sci, Lakeland), Arslan (EE), Burke (iSSRt), Goldgof (CS), Jeanty (CS), Kasturi (CS), Murphy (CS), Sarkar (CS), Valavanis (CS). Active projects at USF include (please see website for projects at UMN):
- Field studies (Murphy, Stover, Burke) with partial funding from Florida High Tech Corridor
- UAV collision avoidance (Kasturi, Sarkar, Goldof)
- Outdoor video surveillance (Sarkar, Goldgof, Kasturi, Jeanty)
- Bandwidth regulation (Murphy, Armitage); patent applied for
- NSF: Human-MAV Team Processes for Effective Hurricane Response . This grant allows researchers to test models of concepts of operations and fundamental human-robot interaction developed during the Hurricane Katrina and Wilma responses.
- NSF: Documenting Damage to Multi-Story Commercial Structures Along the Gulf Coast Using Rotary-Wing Vehicles or "Return to Katrina" After responding to Katrina, USF faculty and
SSR-RC industry member iSENSYS returned to document Katrina damage using UAVs and investigated the use of unmanned helicopters for structural inspection. USF faculty and scientists: Murphy (CS), Stover (SSR-RC)
Personnel
- Prof. Robin Murphy, Director
- Anna Abraham, Secretary 813.974.7651
- Dr. Jenny Burke, Lead Scientist, Human-Robot Interaction Laboratory
- Sam Stover, Assistant Director for Industry and Government Relations
- Bobby Hopp, Equipment Manager