Robots often have a hard time navigating through debris, but robots designed based on worms and snakes could move around obstacles faster, thanks to an idea called mechanical intelligence.
The last of four new Boeing P-8A Poseidon aircraft has landed, substantially increasing New Zealand’s surveillance – and military – capacity. But how they are best deployed is open to debate.
The Titan disaster happened in international waters, in a commercially operated vessel, and with victims of different nationalities. Any details that emerge will likely be treated with sensitivity.
The vessel Polar Prince towing OceanGate Expeditions submersible vessels from St. John’s, N.L., as it leaves to tour the Titanic wreck site on May 29, 2023.
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A team of rescuers has located debris from the Titan, indicating the end of search-and-rescue efforts. Risky undertakings need to assess the cost and capacity of any potential rescue needs.
Kivalina sits on a narrow barrier island on the Chukchi Sea.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
In the years since the Supreme Court rejected Kivalina’s appeal on May 20, 2013, the community’s search and rescue team has faced increasing climate disasters: ‘We just can’t adapt this fast.’
Missing person calls involving an individual with dementia increased by between 10 and 50 per cent across all Ontario regions over the last five years.
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With an increasing number of people living with dementia worldwide and in Canada, it’s crucial to find ways to promote community awareness and prevent people with dementia from getting lost.
A boat carrying migrants was stranded off the coast of Morocco before it was rescued by a Spanish ship in September 2018.
Marco Moreno/AFP via Getty Images
Italian aid workers charged with helping migrants travel through the country were acquitted in May 2022. But migrants are often not well received in Europe, despite a welcome of Ukrainian refugees.
The compact olfactory system provides a more accessible way to study the brain as a whole.
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Understanding how the brain translates smells into behavior change can help advance search and rescue technology and treatments for neurological conditions.
Drones are increasingly being used in disaster management.
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A new study highlights disparities and proposes research priorities for advancing the use of small aerial drones in disaster management.
A drone flies above search and rescue personnel at the site of the Champlain Towers South Condo building collapse in Surfside, Florida.
AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee
At building collapse sites, aerial drones and ground robots can extend the eyes and ears of search and rescue personnel to places people can’t go – above and inside the rubble pile.
Seeing through walls has long been a staple of comics and science fiction. Something like it could soon be a reality.
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The murky blobs visible with today’s wall-penetrating radar could soon give way to detailed images of people and things on the other side of a wall – and even measure people’s breathing and heart rate.
Drones already help with search and rescue, but teaching machines to identify victims on their own could free up human rescuers to do other crucial work.
The Aquarius rescue ship flying the Gibraltar flag enters the harbour in Valletta, Malta in August.
Domenic Aquilina/EPA
Gibraltar’s decision to terminate permission for the Aquarius to conduct operations in the Mediterranean is the latest example of national politics undermining rescue at sea.
The Sea-Watch 3 vessel in Malta in late June 2018.
Vicki Squire
Drones and unmanned aerial vehicles are already saving lives in search and rescue operations, but they still need improvements if they’re to be widely used in the most dangerous situations.
Even modest seas represent a big challenge.
Ints Kalnins/Reuters
The seas are vast. And they claim vessels in significant numbers. The yachts Cheeki Rafiki, Niña, Munetra, Tenacious are just some of the more high-profile names on a list of lost or capsized vessels which…
If you get lost in the bush, you might be found by a flying robot, such as this one.
UAV Challenge
Lost and thirsty in the Australian bush, Outback Joe waited eight years. And finally, in September this year, he was found – by a flying robot. Outback Joe is not a real person, but for a week each September…
With clear international agreements families of passengers lost to air disasters could be granted some certainty.
Azhar Rahim/EPA/AAP
More than 100 days on from the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, the search for the plane continues at a mounting cost for all involved, including the Australian government. Last month senior…