It was a job no living, breathing person could do.  "Here's a condition where there's no physical space: It's too small for people or dogs to get through, and even if people and dogs could get there, there are parts that were still on fire," Murphy said of the disaster scene that followed the fall of the World Trade Center towers in the terrorist attacks in New York.  "There's no oxygen. You have to wear all this gear. And it's too hot. But, yet, there may still be places where there are still survivable voids," she said, "and, so, there's still a chance."  Robots have been around for decades now, but modern versions of these remote-controlled machines never had been used in response to a disaster until September 11. In the 10 years since, our mechanical friends have continued to advance technologically and become increasingly important members of the teams that respond to all kinds of disasters -- from earthquakes to hurricanes and nuclear disasters to oil spills.  "It was a watershed event," Joe Dyer, chief operating officer of iRobot, maker of the PackBot, said of the robotic efforts involved in the September 11 response.  Those robots, which were being developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, were "literally pulled out of the the laboratory and taken to 9/11," said Dyer, who is a retired U.S. Navy vice-admiral.  By land, air and sea  Robots have been involved in pretty much every big disaster since then, and they've been deployed on land, in the air and underwater.
When Robin Murphy saw the World Trade Center towers fall on September 11, she knew of an unexpected group that could help respond: robots.Robots had never been tried in such real-world disasters,