Teleoperated ground robotics for final emergency access
MARDE Ground is the proposed outdoor supply-delivery and communication component. V1 planning combines teleoperated mobility, ground video, a screen, speaker and microphone with a dedicated AED bay and an opposite-side tourniquet magazine. Dispensing would be mechanically automatic only after human authorization. Initial tests will use training equipment and simulated incidents. Indoor access, stair climbing and direct patient contact are deferred.
MARDE Inc. is a Delaware C-Corporation based in New Jersey, with an initial institutional focus on New Jersey and the Northeast United States. It is pre-seed, pre-prototype and pre-revenue. There are no deployed systems, commercial pilots or validated full-system performance results. The next milestone is an integrated, human-in-the-loop V1 demonstration. This page describes development objectives, not an available emergency-response service.
Where it fits in the intended response
The proposed demonstration sequence is simulated dispatch, Nexus review, Air transport, controlled hover lowering, outdoor Ground approach, human-authorized supply dispensing and a simulated EMS handoff. Authorized retreat and pickup by a landed Air platform complete the recovery concept. This is not an existing dispatch integration. Each transition needs a responsible person, a known system state and a way to stop when assumptions no longer hold.
Ground is intended to relay scene information and two-way communication while moving to agreed outdoor receiving locations. It would not apply tourniquets, place AED electrodes or perform CPR in V1. Following an authorized retreat, Ground would return to an open rendezvous for pickup by a landed Air platform. Manually assisted docking is acceptable for initial demonstrations.
Human oversight comes first
V1 is intended to remain human-in-the-loop. Consequential actions require operator authorization, and the overall system is intended to complement EMS rather than replace clinicians or responders. Higher autonomy is a possible future direction that depends on measured reliability and appropriate evaluation. A concept drawing or interface illustration does not establish safe operation.
Requirements conversations should distinguish who operates the system, who accepts the payload and who makes clinical decisions. These responsibilities may involve different people. The proposed workflow needs explicit boundaries and a practical fallback when the mission cannot continue. An emergency-response concept must remain useful to professionals even when the robotic component is unavailable.
Open engineering questions
Ground engineering starts with supply package sizes and a bottom-up mass budget. Outdoor traction, stability, stopping, battery needs, protected carriage and reloadable dispensing need bench and chassis tests. A correct command must release the correct item at low height beside the robot, with confirmation and a defined response to a jam. No measured mobility or dispensing performance has been published.
Testing needs to connect the subsystem to the rest of the architecture. A component can succeed in isolation while the combined workflow fails because of timing, packaging, communications or a confusing handoff. MARDE's immediate goal is to investigate those interactions in a controlled integrated demonstration before making claims about operational use.
Evidence needed before evaluation
Ground evaluation should use repeatable tasks rather than promotional demonstrations. NIST response-robot test methods provide a reference for thinking about mobility, operator proficiency and communication constraints. MARDE would need to choose relevant tasks, publish conditions and record interventions, unsuccessful attempts and recovery time. Referencing these methods does not mean that Ground has passed them or received NIST certification.
Agency evaluation should start with a written use case and success criteria agreed before testing. Records should distinguish design targets, bench observations, integrated exercises and operational outcomes. Changing a configuration or setting can invalidate a previous result. Published evidence should therefore describe limitations, exclusions and the circumstances under which a conclusion applies.
Discuss requirements with MARDE
MARDE welcomes institutional conversations with EMS agencies, fire departments, municipalities, researchers and public-safety teams. Useful input includes access barriers, operator responsibilities, dispatch constraints and acceptable evaluation conditions. The initial regional focus is New Jersey and the Northeast United States; this describes research interest, not service coverage.
Use the Contact page to discuss requirements or future evaluation opportunities. Do not send patient records or request live emergency assistance through the website. No price, purchase offer, deployment date or pilot commitment is implied by this page. The appropriate next step is a factual discussion about what would need to be built and demonstrated.