Smart Emergency Response System

by Susan B. Media

In the United States, a team of researchers have been working on a new disaster response plan called Smart Emergency Response System (SERS). It is a team that comprises humans, dogs, robots and drones that will be deployed at the scene of a disaster. They will work together in order to search the aftermath of a disaster to find and rescue any victims stuck amongst the rubble.

The system has been set up as part of the Smart America Challenge that started at the tail end of 2013. SERS is only one of over 20 research groups that are part of the Smart America Challenge. The goals of the project are to share information and to coordinate responses and recovery using technology and cyber-physical systems. There are many researchers from different companies and universities that are working as part of the team that are developing the new system.

One of the research teams is from NC state. They have been working on one specific aspect of the SERS; the dogs. David Roberts and Alper Bozkurt are the two researchers taking on this project. They have developed a harness for the dogs that has three kinds of technology attached to it that relays information in real time. The different technologies in use are active communication, environmental monitoring and dog monitoring. These improve how effectively the dogs collect information, and how they are used within a coordinated disaster response.

The environmental monitoring aspect of the harness consists of microphones, cameras and gas sensors. These collect information from the dog’s surroundings and send it to the emergency response teams command centre via the active communication unit. The dog monitoring section monitors the physiology and behaviour of the dog (such as heart rate, etc), which tells the command centre and dog handler if the dog has found a point of interest or a scent.

Thanks to the innovative use of technology with SERS, emergency teams will be able to respond and coordinate their rescue effort a lot more effectively. Dogs will be able to work more independently from their handlers, reaching areas where potentially their handlers couldn’t easily or safely follow.

Sensor technology will be a vital part of this new system. SGX Sensortech is a market leader within the sensor technology industry. They can design and produce sensors for a number of different applications. If you have specific sensor requirements then visit their website:

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