2021 Sammies finalist developed testing for emergency response robots

May 12, 2021

We take them for granted now – robotic vehicles operating in emergency or disaster situations. Reliance on robots didn’t just happen. Among other things, it took the establishment of accurate and repeatable testing methodologies, to know for sure if a robot could traverse a rocky slope or a smoky building. For his work at developing advanced robotics testing, Adam Jacoff is a finalist in this year’s Service to America Medals program. He’s the robotics research engineer in the intelligent systems division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and he spoke to Federal Drive with Tom Temin.