The marsupial combination of a USV and MAV stemmed from the experiences of the three principal investigators, Drs. Robin Murphy, Eric Steimle, and Dave Armitage, during the 2005 hurricane season working with the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue (CRASAR) and iSENSYS. In 2005, CRASAR flew two types of MAVs during the Hurricane Katrina response in Mississippi under the direction of the Florida State Emergency Response Team and began focusing on the role of tactical MAVs for emergency response.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma, a man-portable USV was used to inspect dock, seawall and bridge damage at Marco Island, Florida, from both above and below the waterline using a video camera and a DIDSON acoustic underwater camera. However, at Marco Island, the CRASAR responders quickly discovered serious limitations with a USV working in close proximity to littoral structures. These limitations include imprecision of GPS for close operations, loss of GPS, loss of communications, and lack of situation awareness. CRASAR took advantage of the iSENSYS MAV, originally intended for a separate survey of building damage, to provide a bird's eye view solving most of these problems. Given prior work by Dr. Murphy in marsupial robots, having a USV carry a MAV and launching the MAV on demand to maximize the MAV's time in the air was an obvious next step.