As urban infrastructure ages and underground spaces grow more crowded, sinkhole incidents are rising — and rising without warning. With almost no precursors, response speed defines survival. Yet existing rescue procedures depend on tripod rigs and human responders rappelling directly into the cavity, a labor-heavy and access-limited workflow that puts the golden hour out of reach.
V-CADO is proposed for that gap: a rapid-response sinkhole rescue robot. Deployed first, before any human descent, it locates victims, maps the terrain, and — when necessary — uses onboard tools to engineer optimal conditions for the rescue that follows.
