INACHUS

Technological and Methodological Solutions for Integrated Wide Area Situation Awareness and Survivor Localisation to Support Search and Rescue Teams

Start date: 2015-01-01 End date: 2018-12-31

Coordinated by: Institute of communication and computer systems

Objectives

Crisis incidents result in difficult working conditions for Urban Search-and-Rescue (USaR) crews. INACHUS aims to achieve a significant time reduction and increase efficiency in USaR operations by providing:

  1. Simulation tools for estimating the locations of survival spaces (after a structural collapse) and identify the location of survivors for different construction types and building materials
  2. Decision and planning modules for advanced casualty and damage estimation that will be based on input coming from airborne and ground-based laser-scanning and imaging data
  3. Integration of i) existing and novel sensors (electromagnetic, vision, chemical) for detecting and high-accurate localisation and ii) mobile phones signals for estimating the number of the trapped humans
  4. A snake robot mechanism (integrated with the sensors) to penetrate inside the rubble to locate more accurately trapped victims
  5. A robust, resilient and interoperable communication platform to ensure that the sensors data can reach the command center
  6. Enhanced data analysis techniques and 3-D visualization tool of the mission place to be operated by the crisis managers and the decision makers. A suitable decision support system will be used for planning & managing complex USaR operations
  7. System Integration of all the aforementioned software and hardware subcomponents (INACHUS platform)
  8. Contribution to standards: interaction with international organizations and public authorities in the fields of USaR, through an early defined and developed User Group, to ensure strong links with the user communities and standardisation bodies
  9. Consideration of societal impacts and legal/ethical issues of the proposed solution at the onset of the project feeding into the technical solutions
  10. Numerous field and simulated tests properly designed and executed for presenting the capabilities of the INACHUS integrated platform
  11. Appropriate training package and extensive training courses to the First Responders.