Frankly, when we first heard about Aldebaran's intention to produce robots that could be helpful in disaster scenarios, it provided some needed comic relief, imagining an army of brave little NAO robots, perhaps deployed by parachute, scrambling through debris and somehow signaling human rescuers when they've located a living person trapped in the wreckage. But, in the above-linked video interview, Bruno Maisonnier of Aldebaran makes clear that he is altogether sincere in this, and that he is thinking in far more practical terms than our gratefully amused imaginings.

(Robin Murphy, director of CRASAR, reported on April 3rd that she's in Japan, without her robots, acting as a consultant. We hope to hear more from her soon.)