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Bristling with sensors, bright lights and video cameras, the robots are designed to find disaster survivors. Unfortunately, at this late stage, no one is likely to be found alive.

The robots include marsupial machines that spit smaller robots out of their "stomachs" and shape-changing robots that can flatten themselves to crawl through tight spaces or rear up to climb and look over objects.

Some are secret military designs, declassified especially for the WTC rescue operation.

A team of four robot researchers from the University of South Florida, led by roboticist Robin Murphy, are assisting the salvage operation with about seven robots, including various marsupial designs.

Another team from Colorado, led by retired Marine Lt. Colonel John Blitch, are using secret military reconnaissance robots based on the Urbie design.

Murphy and three graduate students drove up from Florida immediately after the terrorist strikes, arriving in New York early Wednesday. They went to work later that night and have been working all week.

"She's getting fatigued and frustrated," said Murphy's husband, Kevin, from the couple's home in Tampa, Florida. "It comes and goes, but she seems to be holding up.

"Apparently the robots are being accepted as a useful tool," he added. "They've been called on to help through the night."

Murphy is using several prototype marsupial robots, which combine a large "mother" robot with a smaller "daughter" machine that is small enough to maneuver deep into crevices in the rubble.

The mother robot is equipped with large batteries, communications equipment and computers that steer the daughter machine.

Attached by cable or a wireless link, the daughter robot searches for clues of survivors, relaying its findings to the mother, which in turn notifies members of a rescue team.

Some of the daughter machines are able to change their shape, morphing from flat pizza boxes into upright designs that can peer over obstacles.

Most are driven by caterpillar tracks and are strong enough to push lumps of concrete out of the way.

Murphy's marsupial system is semi-autonomous, but because they have never been used in the field before, the robots are being used exclusively under radio control, Murphy's husband said.

"Right now they're being manually controlled," he said. "They're dangling them into holes by their cables."

The team from Colorado is made up of about a dozen robot researchers led by retired Lt. Colonel Blitch. The team drove cross-country from Colorado on Tuesday to assist with the rescue operation.

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