John Price

Program ManagerFirst Responders GroupScience and Technology Directorate

FINDER: Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response

InterAgency Board (IAB) Equipment Subgroup

October 22, 2015

FINDER

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Where we Started

Project Purpose and Objective

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Purpose Develop a tool for first responders to locate live human victims in

disasters—such as earthquakes, structural collapses and floods— through the detection of beating hearts

• Using microwave radar, FINDER detects human heartbeats at standoff distances greater than 30 feet through walls, doors and rubble

• Allows effective allocation of search and rescue resources

• Helps first responders save lives through rapid victim detection and rescue

Objective Provide responders the ability to quickly determine if a live human is

trapped within a collapsed structure, allowing limited Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) resources to be sent to the location of a viable victim

Background

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April 2012 – Initiated through a requirement from FEMA US&R Program Office

• Responders desired the ability to walk down a city street after an earthquake leveled buildings and quickly determine whether anyone was buried alive

• Same technology could vastly improve law enforcement officer and firefighter safety

• Project builds upon 4 years and more than $3 million of research conducted for the U.S. Army  

Problem at Hand

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Where do you start? Where do you end?

Looking for the Holy Grail of Search & Rescue (SAR)

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“Walk down a street with collapsed buildings and readily determine which have live humans in them!”

FINDER

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Where we Are

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How SAR Teams Do It Now

“Topas” – Wilderness Air-ScentingSearch & Rescue Canine John Price

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FINDER Capabilities Detects Human Heartbeats and Respiration

• Search from 5-30 ft. away• Search results appear in less than 60 seconds• Detects multiple victims in the same location• Rejects non-human targets (distinguishes between a

human heartbeat and an animal heartbeat)• Radar RF output: 10 milliwatts at 3.1-3.2 GHz

Demonstrated Detection/Penetration Range• > 30 ft. of concrete, rebar, gravel and rubble• > 30 ft. of collapsed wood frame structure and appliances• > 15 ft. of stacked reinforced concrete slabs• > 100 ft. in open air or woodland• > 50 ft. through residential walls

Size, Weight and Power• 22 x 14 x 9 in (carry-on limitations)• Approximately 20 lbs• Waterproof (Ingress Testing IP67)• 14-hour rechargeable battery life

Used for Travel/Protection Sized to Fit in Airplane Overhead Compartmented

Search Strategy

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FINDER covers an area twice as wide as far away (90 degrees) It’s not a hard cutoff, much more fuzzy Searches should be spaced about as far as the depth of search (30 feet)

to have overlap between search areas

How the Radar Works

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Reflection off surface

Scattering from rubble, some goes towards target

Return from Target

Absorption in the soil

Radar illuminates the rubble pile (like a bright searchlight) and reflects everything, including the victim

But only if victim is moving (breathing and heartbeat)—look for tiny changes in reflection

Phase change is about 6º-7º due to small (1mm) motions of victim’s body due to heartbeat

Same for both continuous or pulsed radars; difference is in implementation

Multiple Antennas & Beams Allow Distinguishing Desired Targets from Others

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Post-pilot, CPD will continue to integrate and test additional technologies through the duration of public safety broadband access.

Red: 45%Green: 30%Blue: 60%

Red: 100%Green: 100%Blue: 40%

FINDER

Rubble

Victim

First

Responder

First Responder heartbeat reflected off rubble

Targets can be distinguished by relative strength and direction

What You See on the Display

Date and Time

Picture

Results

Reliability is combination of signal and “humanness”

Heart and Respiration rates are approximate; FINDER is not a medical instrument

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Stack of T-Beams

Radar placed here, looking down

Victim placed here

Also detected victim here through 5 layers of 6” reinforced concrete; over 30 feet down

(One million pounds of a concrete parking structure)

Additional Testing

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Current Status

DHS/S&T work is competed

• Proof of Concept

• Field Trials: (OK-1, IN-1, VA-1, VA-2)

• Commercialization

Technology commercialized with two licensees

R4, Eatontown, New Jersey Spec Ops Group, Tampa, Florida

Develop other uses for the sensor

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