A three-person Squishy Robotics team has returned from almost a week of extensive testing assessing the resiliency of the communications of our sensors in operationally relevant environments at Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX), Disaster City. This TEEX-tested effort was funded through our National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) – Public Safety Communications Research grant for continued user testing with our public safety agency partners Southern Manatee Fire & Rescue (SMFR), San Jose Fire Department (SJFD), and TEEX.

Southern Manatee Fire & Rescue (SMFR), a Squishy Robotics pilot partner since 2020, is well-known within the fire service for being a leader in the integration of new technologies for HazMat response. Such technologies must be safe to operate in even the most extreme of environments.

With the tag line, “there’s more space in your life than you think,” Spinoff profiles technologies that got their start because of NASA investment and support.  In Spherical Robots to the Rescue, the publication explains how NASA Early Stage Innovations (ESI) funding for spherical robots that could explore planetary and lunar surfaces led to disaster response tensegrity robots that provide situational awareness to first responders on Earth.

“Our company was started to provide first responders with the situational awareness to keep themselves and the public they serve safe,” said Squishy Robotics COO Deniz Dogruer, “so it was gratifying to learn that the HazMat team members at our long-time partner Southern Manatee Fire & Rescue (SMFR) were using our 4-GasPLUS sensor robots to perform air monitoring during the department’s recent activities related to a train derailment in their county.”

Lead Mechatronics Engineer Douglas Hutchings took a trip to Southern California earlier this month to meet with several fire departments and to demonstrate Squishy Robotics 4-GasPLUS tensegrity robots. One of the highlights of his trip was meeting with members of the Corona Fire Department.

Dr. Alice Agogino, Squishy Robotics CEO and a UC Berkeley professor, and Dr. Becca Fenwick of UC Santa Cruz were joint recipients of one of the 2022 CITRIS Seed Awards. Their proposal, “Human-Drone-Robot Teaming for Wildfire Detection: Technology and Workforce Development,” focuses on better detection and prediction of wildfire events while also empowering fire professionals to leverage emerging technologies.

“The communication of time-critical, life-saving data to first responders consists of both the reliable transmission of data—a task that often must be performed in less-than-ideal situations—as well as the presentation of data in a way that is easily digestible and actionable,” said Squishy Robotics COO Deniz Dogruer. Squishy Robotics sensor robots and associated software need to excel at both to better ensure the safety of the first responders that employ our products. “This grant will help our company to improve product communications as well as to conduct significant user experience testing that we believe will result in important first responder-recommended product improvements.”

Squishy Robotics has recently begun a year of testing communications equipment, protocols, and software, which is funded by a NIST PSCR grant award. The Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a federal laboratory that focuses on evaluation of and improvements for public safety communications technologies. NIST is a non-regulatory agency under the U.S. Department of Commerce that develops standards that apply to various industries.

Squishy Robotics CEO Alice Agogino was an invited speaker at the 2022 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).

Dr. Alice Agogino and researchers at Squishy Robotics are conducting a study on methane emissions detection, characterization, and remediation. The Methane Emissions Reporting study focuses on reviewing previous research data and interviewing leaders in the Oil and Gas industry, investors,

Squishy Robotics CEO and co-founder Dr. Alice Agogino was one of the panelists for the inaugural session of “AI for Good,” a year-long digital series of events exploring how robotics and artificial intelligence (A.I.) can help achieve the United Nation (UN)’s Sustainability Goals and improve conditions for humankind and our planet.

Three tensegrity robots at work during the Subway Terrorist Attack scenario.

Squishy Robotics recently participated in a prescribed burn event in Novato, CA that was run by  F.I.R.E. Foundry and a local fire department.

The Olathe Fire Department is now a Squishy Robotics pilot partner. Squishy Robotics shipped three tensegrity robots in mid-August to the Kansas fire department, which coordinated the robot delivery with the department’s delivery of a new DJI Matrice 300 drone for emergency response.

Squishy Robotics’ sensor robots were among the innovative public safety solutions included in a Southern Manatee Fire & Rescue (SMFR) HazMat training exercise held in late June. The training exercise, which simulated a HazMat leak from a railroad tanker car, was conducted at a chemical facility in Manatee County, Florida.

Squishy Robotics was among the recipients of the inaugural “Good Robot” Industry Awards presented by the non-profit industry association, Silicon Valley Robotics (SVR). The SVR Industry Awards celebrate the robotics, automation, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) that will help the world solve global challenges.