Natural disasters and emergencies happen frequently; regardless of the resources of the areas they occur in. For locations with limited first responder equipment and manpower, it is often very difficult to locate and rescue victims as quickly and safely as possible. This project aims to address this need by creating an Autonomous Search And Rescue (ASAR) prototype for future development.

Current search and rescue operations rely heavily on error prone human perception and the availability of expensive equipment (most of which takes trained specialists to operate). An autonomous search and rescue unit is a system capable of mapping navigating a disaster zone accurately without requiring nearly as much manpower. This system will be able to efficiently determine and traverse the optimal route within dangerous area in order to minimize the time taken by first responders to rescue victims.

The goals of this project are to design a prototype system that will be able to autonomously travel through a simulated disaster zone using a path optimized for the safety and speed of first responders. This will minimize both the time taken to reach victims in critical condition as well as the risk to humans traveling through natural disasters. Several natural disaster scenarios will be simulated in a controlled environment to prove path finding capabilities of the system. The autonomous robot will navigate through multiple types of simulated terrain and dangerous events. Once functionality is achieved at this prototype level, the ASAR system can be scaled up and generalized to operate in natural environments.

Project Name

Autonomous Search and Rescue (ASAR)

Project Number

P18542

Start Term

2171

End Term

2175

Faculty Guide(s)

Fall: Professor Slack, gbseee@rit.edu / Spring: Professor Indovina, maieee@rit.edu

Primary Consultant

Lt. Ronald Steen, Niagara County Sheriff's Department

Planning & Execution

Project Photos and Videos

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Problem Definition

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Preliminary Detailed Design

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PRP

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