The authors describe the progress that has been made towards the development of a remotely controlled mobile robot that can be used by hazardous materials emergency response teams to perform a variety of tasks including incident localization and characterization, hazardous material identification/classification, site surveillance and monitoring, and ultimately incident mitigation. In its first end-to-end demonstration, the HAZBOT II vehicle navigated to the incident location from a distant (150-200 ft.) deployment site; entered a building through a door with thumb latch style handle and door closer; located and navigated to the suspected incident location (a chemical storeroom); unlocked and opened the storeroom's door; climbed over the storeroom's 12 in. high threshold to enter the storeroom; and located and identified a broken container of benzene.
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