Enhancing canine disaster search

This paper describes Canine Augmentation Technology (CAT) for use in urban search and rescue (USAR). CAT is a WiFi enabled sensor array that is worn by a trained canines deployed in urban disasters. The system includes, but is not limited to, cameras that provide emergency responders with real-time data to remotely monitor, analyze and take action during USAR operations. An analysis is made of the current tools available to USAR workers including rescue robots and canine search teams. From this analysis came the design of CAT—a system that extracts the strengths of each available USAR tool and combines them to compliment each other. Our experiments yield promising results that CAT may provide significant help to rescuers.