Upon arriving at an incident site in the wake of a terrorist attack or a natural disaster, structures specialists from FEMA’s Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) program are tasked with ensuring the structural stability of partially collapsed buildings. Successful building stabilization limits the risk to first responders as they strive to find and remove trapped victims, so it is vitally important that these specialists know immediately when changes occur within a structural system.

Working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Columbia University, Civionics is developing a new ready-to-deploy wireless solution for US&R’s structural specialists. The architectural design of this system is decomposed into two functional layers. The first layer is composed of ultra low-power wireless sensors and will be used to physically sense the behavior of the monitored structure and to track the location of any first responders working within. This layer will then transmit the information that it gathers to a second layer of more sophisticated wireless computing devices. These advanced wireless nodes will make automated decisions about the health of the damaged structure and will relay this information, as well as information regarding first responder location, to structures specialists and other relevant personnel.

The proposed system will improve upon existing US&R wireless monitoring systems in the following ways:

  1. Low-power communications will be employed, allowing the system to operate for months using only lightweight, low-cost, and readily available AA rechargeable batteries.
  2. Wireless tilt and crack detection capabilities will be included in the same low-cost sensing package.
  3. An intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) will be made available for a smart phone operating system, allowing a structural specialist to spatially view sensor data in real-time.
  4. An on-board visual display will be included in the design of each sensing package allowing for easy data interpretation by non-technical first responders.
  5. An “at-the-sensor” thresholding feature will be included that will allow variable warning thresholds to be set by a structural specialist in the field.
  6. Embedded data processing algorithms will prevent false indicators and will convert volumes of raw data into actionable information for first responders.
  7. Hardened containers will be designed for packaging the wireless sensors to ensure extended survivability when exposed to blasts and extreme heat (i.e., fire).
  8. An energy-aware multi-hop forwarding mechanism will be integrated to enable communication that is energy-efficient and robust.