  Earthquakes, fire, and floods often cause structural collapses of buildings.
The inspection of damaged buildings poses a high risk for emergency forces or
is even impossible, though. We present three recent selected missions of the
Robotics Task Force of the German Rescue Robotics Center, where both ground and
aerial robots were used to explore destroyed buildings. We describe and reflect
the missions as well as the lessons learned that have resulted from them. In
order to make robots from research laboratories fit for real operations,
realistic test environments were set up for outdoor and indoor use and tested
in regular exercises by researchers and emergency forces. Based on this
experience, the robots and their control software were significantly improved.
Furthermore, top teams of researchers and first responders were formed, each
with realistic assessments of the operational and practical suitability of
robotic systems.
