In the face of natural or man-made disasters, urban search and rescue (SaR) teams and other first responders like police, medical units, civil protection or volunteers, race against the clock to locate survivors within the critical 72-hour timeframe (Golden Hours), facing challenges such as instable structures or hazardous environments but also insufficient situational awareness – all resulting in lengthy SaR processes.
In order to speed up the detection of survivors trapped in collapsed buildings and to improve working conditions for the first responders, the EU-funded research project CURSOR designed an innovative Search and Rescue Kit (CURSOR SaR Kit) based on drones, miniaturized robotic equipment, advanced sensors and incident management applications. The overreaching aim of CURSOR is to develop a SaR kit that will be easy and fast to deploy leading to a reduced time in detecting and locating trapped victims in disaster areas.
To make sure that these solutions are meeting the needs of the first responders on the field, the system was tested by first responders of the CURSOR consortium as well as by external practitioners (e.g. INSARAG secretariat, Regione Liguria, USaR NL, Japan NRIFD) throughout the whole development process. Several lab and small scale field trials were conducted. Against this background the consortium identified the standardization potential for a guide that describes a field test and the associated methodology for assessing the use of innovative technologies such as the SaR kit.
The objective of the standardization initiative is to develop a guiding document that answers questions like: How to set up a test field for a SaR kit? What should be tested? How should be tested? Who should conduct the test? What is the minimum set of specifications for the technological tools? The reader of the CWA would have the benefit of using the same procedure for different tests, so that a baseline is in place and the test results can be comparable. An important aspect is also to identify the limitations of different components of a SAR kit – depending of the context of the search and rescue, the user is able to choose the correct components for the task.
The kick-off meeting will be held on Tuesday, 30 November 2021, from 9.00-11.30 as a web meeting.
All interested parties are invited to submit comments on the draft Project Plan to the Workshop Project Manager, Ms Saskia MARESCH – DIN, by 29 November 2021. You are kindly requested to use the commenting form below.
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