Robots had never been tried in such real-world disasters, but they had gotten much smaller and more nimble in the years before that tragic event. So Murphy, a professor of computer science at Texas A&M University, and a small group of her fellow roboticists decided it was time. The robots were ready.
Shoe-box-size creatures called PackBots, with tank-like tread on their wheels and shipping-crane arms, were asked for the first time to dig through the rubble of the World Trade Center alongside human counterparts. The robots' goals were to search for victims and assess the structural integrity of the debris by sending back rough images from hard-to-reach places.
It was a job no living, breathing person could do.
"Here's a condition where there's no physical space: It's too small for people or dogs to get through, and even if people and dogs could get there, there are parts that were still on fire," Murphy said of the disaster scene that followed the fall of the World Trade Center towers in the terrorist attacks in New York.
"There's no oxygen. You have to wear all this gear. And it's too hot. But, yet, there may still be places where there are still survivable voids," she said, "and, so, there's still a chance."
Robots have been around for decades now, but modern versions of these remote-controlled machines never had been used in response to a disaster until September 11. In the 10 years since, our mechanical friends have continued to advance technologically and become increasingly important members of the teams that respond to all kinds of disasters -- from earthquakes to hurricanes and nuclear disasters to oil spills.
"It was a watershed event," Joe Dyer, chief operating officer of iRobot, maker of the PackBot, said of the robotic efforts involved in the September 11 response.
Those robots, which were being developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, were "literally pulled out of the the laboratory and taken to 9/11," said Dyer, who is a retired U.S. Navy vice-admiral.
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