Hurricanes&Tornados

Hurricanes are extremely strong storms and often happen in the Caribbean. They cause huge waves, and heavy flooding and can be hundreds of miles across. In 1998, Hurricane Gilbert produced 160 mile an hour winds. It killed 318 people, and destroyed much of Jamaica. Tornadoes or ‘twisters’ are very strong spinning winds. They can move objects as big as a car and can blow buildings down.

A tropical cyclone is a storm system characterized by a low pressure center and numerous thunderstorms that produce strong winds and flooding rain. A tropical cyclone feeds on heat released when moist air rises, resulting in condensation of water vapour contained in the moist air. They are fueled by a different heat mechanism than other cyclonic windstorms such as nor’easters, European windstorms, and polar lows, leading to their classification as “warm core” storm systems.

A tornado is a violently rotating column of air which is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. Tornadoes come in many sizes but are typically in the form of a visible condensation funnel, whose narrow end touches the earth and is often encircled by a cloud of debris.

Networking Robots and Sensor Systems to Help First Responders React More Quickly

Earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes -- natural disasters constantly catch us by surprise, no matter how many early-warning systems are in place. This makes it all the more significant for rescue teams to get a quick overview of the situation at hand. In SENEKA, a Markets Beyond Tomorrow project, Fraunhofer researchers are working to network the a variety of robots and sensor systems first responders use so that they can react more quickly and professionally in the case of an emergency to search for victims and survivors.

The earth is shaking, buildings are collapsing, power and usefulness lines as well as roads are destroyed. A disaster can have many causes, but frequently the outcome is the same: chaos, panic and dedicated but overtaxed first responders. The people lying buried beneath the rubble hold hopes for a speedy rescue, but sometimes it takes hours or even days to work through an entire area. To make matters worse, the work of liberate personnel can become extremely dangerous. Because every minute counts when the work of saving lives is concerned, robot-supported systems are increasingly used to go faster search operations. According to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), the rate of growth in the use of these helpers is predictable to increase to 17 percent by 2013. The experience of the past several years also shows that the collision of special robots is very minor because individual devices and systems often cannot function with one a different in the field.