HexySAR: an AI-powered hexapod for SAR missions

HexySAR is an AI-powered autonomous hexapod designed for search-and-rescue missions in dangerous cave environments. Cave rescue operations are often slow, risky, and resource-intensive because human rescuers must enter unstable, dark, and unknown terrain with limited visibility and high physical danger. HexySAR addresses this by sending an autonomous robot first. The system combines robotic simulation, multimodal AI, and a web-based control interface. Hexy can explore cave-like environments, walk toward detected targets, respond to voice cues, and assist in identifying possible survivor locations. Its AI pipeline integrates visual detection, audio understanding, and reasoning to support autonomous decision-making. The robot is trained and tested in MuJoCo-based simulation, with reinforcement learning used for locomotion and synthetic cave data used for survivor detection. To make the system more deployable, we also implemented model quantization, reducing VRAM requirements from around 16GB to approximately 2GB. This makes HexySAR more realistic for edge or SBC-class robot deployment, rather than being limited to high-end workstations. The goal of HexySAR is simple which is to send AI first, reduce human risk, and help rescue teams make faster, safer decisions.