Optical sensors for urban search and rescue operations

The Second Generation Locator for Urban Search and Rescue Operations (SGL for USaR) is an EC-funded project solving critical problems following massive destruction and large scale structural collapses in urban locations. One part of the project is the development of a standalone portable first responder device (FIRST) for the operational rescue teams. It will combine field chemical analysis, spectral analysis with audio and video analysis capabilities for the early location of entrapped people, the detection of buried people and air quality monitoring in confined spaces for ensuring safety and security of first responders. Hardware selected for the optical sensors of the FIRST-device will be responsible for the fluorescence, visible (VIS), near infrared (NIR) and long wavelength infrared (LWIR) range detection as well as supplying required illumination. FIRST shall identify images of fires or other events, damage patterns, temperature of living humans, motion of body parts and human postures. The device requirements were based on the operational input and feedback received from European rescue teams - partners within the project (final product end-users). Some of the critical properties for the selected components were compact physical size, low power consumption, refresh rate and adequate resolution of the sensor image data. During the project, special image libraries were collected and suitable image processing algorithms based on the collected data were developed