Date of Award

2011

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Department

Electrical and Computer Engineering

First Advisor

Alex Ferworn

Abstract

One of the most critical factors in urban search and rescue is time, as the chances of finding someone alive diminish with time. Emergency responders locate casualties, plan their rescue based on the available information, and then extract them. Measures are taken to do this as safely as possible as the harsh environment may lead to rescuers being injured. Our research demonstrates how emergency responders can obtain more information about the victim and the collapse faster, while potentially increasing their Situational Awareness (SA), and thus decreasing the time to rescue of the casualties. The system described is an enhanced version of Canine Augmentation Technology (CAT) -- a telepresence system for augmenting search canines. CAT integrates different technologies like wireless mesh networks, wearable computing, sensors, and software for recording, streaming, and scrubbing of video. The goal of our research is to reduce the time to rescue of victims by providing more relevant information to rescuers faster.