Humanitarian work can be dangerous, often when it’s most needed. Rather than sending people directly into crisis situations, some companies are trying to give relief workers another option: robots. Global Post reports that companies are developing machines that can fly, dig, or crawl their way into dangerous places, and could save lives. The Dragonfly unmanned aerial vehicle, for example (video below), could fly over a collapsed building with a mobile camera, beaming valuable information back to rescue workers. At $15,000 per vehicle, however, most humanitarian agencies would have trouble coming up with the money. “The justification for buying equipment rather than medical supplies might be a little blurred,” robotics expert Robert Richardson told Global Post, “but you have to balance the cost of the equipment against the value of someone’s life.”
Source: Global Post
