Urban Emergency Response Robot Swarm RescueSwarm Completes First Multi-Disaster Joint Drill in Tokyo

Urban Emergency Response Robot Swarm RescueSwarm Completes First Multi-Disaster Joint Drill in Tokyo

On October 11, 2030, Japan's Fire and Disaster Management Agency organized the first multi-disaster joint drill for the RescueSwarm urban emergency response robot swarm in Tokyo's waterfront subcenter area. The drill simulated an extreme scenario of a magnitude-7.2 earthquake triggering building collapse, gas leak fires, and underground water pipe rupture flooding simultaneously.

RescueSwarm comprises 50 robots divided into four functional groups: 12 search-and-rescue robots (searching for survivors in rubble), 10 fire suppression robots (using dry powder and water mist to extinguish gas fires), 8 drainage robots (pumping standing water), and 20 transport robots (delivering rescue supplies and evacuating the injured).

Drill commander Masayuki Tanaka, Technical Director of the Tokyo Fire and Disaster Management Agency, said: "RescueSwarm's core advantage is its ability to operate continuously in hazardous environments that humans cannot enter. During the drill, the robot swarm located all 15 simulated survivors in collapsed buildings, 8 of whom were in areas that firefighters could not safely access."

RescueSwarm was jointly developed by the University of Tokyo's JSK Laboratory and Japanese robotics company Cyberdyne. The system uses a distributed decision-making architecture — each robot acts independently based on its own sensor data but coordinates with other robots through a shared situational awareness map. Even if some robots lose connection or are damaged, remaining robots automatically regroup to continue the mission.

RescueSwarm's total R&D cost was approximately 3 billion yen (about $20 million), funded by the Japanese Cabinet Office's ImPACT program. The Fire and Disaster Management Agency plans to deploy one RescueSwarm system each in Tokyo, Osaka, and Yokohama by 2032.