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About

Kevin Pratt is a robotics researcher whose work sits at the intersection of unmanned systems, disaster response, and human-robot interaction. Based at the University of South Florida's Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue (CRASAR), Pratt has made pioneering contributions to the deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) in real-world emergency scenarios. His most influential work — a 2008 study on cooperative UAV and USV deployment during Hurricane Wilma, now cited over 219 times — helped establish the viability of multi-robot teams in disaster relief operations. Pratt has been instrumental in developing operational protocols for micro air vehicles in urban environments, drawing on field data from Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma, and contributed to the design of the Sea-RAI marsupial robot system, a novel man-portable platform capable of launching aerial vehicles from the water's surface. His 2008 study on tethered UAV use at the Berkman Plaza II structural collapse demonstrated how unmanned systems can safely conduct forensic inspections under strict regulatory constraints. With research spanning guarded motion methodologies and even theatrical robotics, Pratt exemplifies a versatile, field-driven approach to advancing autonomous systems for high-stakes environments.