GAZA , Al-Quds.com - (Xinhua) Three Palestinian students from the Gaza Strip succeeded in inventing the first smart robot that helps rescue teams reach the injured under the rubble more quickly to reduce the chances of risking their lives.

Over the course of many months, the brothers Rama, Ahmed Ibrahim, and Youssef Akl, all of whom were in high school, worked on making a robot that relies on artificial intelligence using simple electronic tools available in their environment.

The three young men gave their invention the name " Rescue Robot ", which was in the form of a small box that walked on wheels and carried an electronic board that helped control it remotely via "Bluetooth" through an application installed on a mobile phone.

And as soon as the robot, equipped with a camera and an alarm siren, reaches the injured person stuck under the rubble, it emits continuous beeps, while notifications are sent to the mobile phone used by the rescuers during the mission, according to the three inventors.

Rama Ibrahim told Xinhua that the team got the idea to invent the robot after the last wave of tension over the Gaza Strip ended in May last year, when dozens of civilians "lost their lives while they were stuck under the rubble."

Rama adds, while she was observing the operation of the robot on her computer screen, that the rescue team and civil defense crews "had great difficulty in reaching the injured and victims in record time due to the bombing and the constant power outages."

In May of last year, the Israeli army launched a fierce aggression against the Strip that lasted for 11 days, after the armed Palestinian factions launched a barrage of rockets at Israeli towns and cities, in response to the settlers' provocations against the Palestinians in Al-Aqsa Mosque and East Jerusalem.

The Israeli warplanes targeted a large percentage of the infrastructure in the Strip under the pretext of targeting the "subway" of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), which caused the collapse of dozens of civilian homes over the heads of their residents, most of whom were killed under the rubble.

More than 260 Palestinians were killed during the aggression on the Strip, most of them civilians, and thousands were injured, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, compared to 14 Israelis who were killed as a result of Palestinian rockets hitting Israeli towns and cities.

Rama says that these unexpected circumstances contributed greatly to the high number of victims, whether they were civilians or even workers in the rescue teams who were endangering their lives while entering under the rubble to extract the injured.

Therefore, the trio team has a great desire to take advantage of artificial intelligence and manufacture a robot that helps find solutions that enable rescue teams to reach the injured as quickly as possible.

"My colleagues and I studied the idea of making a robot and set a time plan for that, as we relied on using electronic tools available to us, most of which are leftovers of damaged electronic games or electrical tools that are not used," she explains.

For his part, Youssef Akl told Xinhua, "Unfortunately, we live in a conflict zone that is constantly witnessing wars, which means that we should prepare for such harsh conditions in the future."

Akl added, while he was driving the robot using a remote control, "There is not a small percentage of the victims who died because of suffocation under the rubble, not because of the bombing," noting that there were no suitable openings to get them out.

He explained that what distinguishes the robot is that it is able to reach the victims through narrow openings that a person cannot enter from, considering that such an invention contributes greatly to protecting the rescue teams from exposure to danger.

The three students faced difficulties during the manufacture of the robot in light of the lack of all the necessary materials for its manufacture, including a small and accurate quad captur camera, in addition to the high price of other materials, but this did not stand in the way of continuing their work.

Ahmed says, "Despite the obstacles, we had insistence on making the initial shape of the robot," noting that the team is currently working on developing the shape of the robot to become a "snake that can reach the most narrow areas."■