The ISTeC People-Animals-Robots laboratory: Robust resource allocation

This corresponds to the material in the invited plenary presentation by H. J. Siegel. It is an overview of the ISTeC PAR Laboratory under development, and a summary of some current robust search efforts that are part of PAR. In the chaotic, time-sensitive environment of a post-disaster search and rescue scenario, making decisions on how to best utilize resources is difficult. Leaders must assign assets (e.g., people, robots, animals, equipment) to accomplish the mission quickly and with minimal loss of life. Their difficulties are compounded by the communication and inter-operability challenges presented by a multi-entity team. The developing ISTeC People-Animals-Robots (PAR) laboratory at Colorado State University will identify and solve the challenges presented by these diverse teams. This multi-disciplinary research group will provide a directed, coordinated environment for the development of the knowledge and competency required to design a good synergistic solution of people, animals, and robots for a given problem. This invited paper provides an overview of the PAR Laboratory and extends a mathematical model of a village search to the search and rescue domain.