Sensors and robots to aid emergency response
Emergency response teams have to work rapidly to locate survivors in the aftermath of a natural disaster like an earthquake or flood, yet the environment may remain very dangerous. Researchers in the CURSOR project are developing robots and sensors to help first responders work effectively without putting more lives at risk, as Tiina Ristmäe explains. A natural disaster
like a flood or earthquake can have a devastating impact on the area affected, and it can be difficult for emergency response teams to rapidly locate survivors without putting more lives at risk. Drones and robots hold great potential in these terms, but these technologies are not yet widely used in emergency response, a major motivating factor behind the work of the CURSOR project. “The equipment available to many relief organisations is often not as modern as we would like,” says Tiina Ristmäe, the coordinator of the project. The project consortium brings together 17 partners from across Europe and Japan with the shared goal of developing technologies to be used in the period after the initial response, when maybe local authorities ask for further assistance and support. “International teams arrive when the country or region affected requests further help. These teams have standardised training and their equipment is more or less similar,” continues Ristmäe.
Search and rescue The first task for these teams is typically to search for survivors and rescue them as rapidly as possible. Drones play an important role here, helping teams assess the damage to buildings for example and evaluate the overall situation, from which they can then develop more detailed plans. “Drones help to accelerate search and rescue,” says Ristmäe. The focus in the project
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Transport drone carrying SMURF dummies, set up at a field test, SMURF. @ CURSOR project.
is on developing robotic components, including SMURFs (Soft, Miniaturised, Underground Robotic Finders), which are designed for deployment in emergency response situations either manually by first responders or using special transport drones (based on a combination of commercially available and newly developed components). “A transport drone deploys the SMURFs on a rubble pile, for example from a collapsed building, and releases them from a maximum height of 1 metre. So, the drone has to come down close to the rubble, but it doesn’t have to land,” explains Ristmäe. “The robots are released, and then they start to move around in the rubble. They can navigate autonomously, or by an operator.” A pile of rubble is a very dangerous environment for first responders, with the risk of aftershocks that could lead to further collapses. The main task for these robots in this type of situation is to act as the eyes and ears of first responders, providing information to handheld devices, and they are equipped with several sensors to help locate survivors. “We have a heat sensor, a thermal camera, and it’s also possible to have a live video picture and an audio connection,” says Ristmäe. Another important part of the project’s work involves developing a sniffer, which Ristmäe describes as essentially an artificial nose. “The aim is that the sniffer is able to smell what are called volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which everybody releases,” she outlines. “The sniffer detects
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