A human body searching strategy using a cable-driven robot with an electromagnetic wave direction finder at major disasters

At large-scale urban earthquake disasters, human search and information collection are the most important processes in rescue activities. This research develops a parallel cable-driven robot focusing on information acquisition from above at structures crushed by landslides caused by huge earthquakes. The tip of each cable of this robot is attached to a comparatively strong structure and this robot, mounted with several sensors, is driven by multiple cables. This paper proposes the human search system. Recently, a lot of people have acquired cell phones or other mobile devices. Our proposed search system is designed to identify the position of a human body using this robot with an electromagnetic wave direction finder (ESPAR antenna). This paper illustrates the usefulness of the human body searching strategy through several experimental results.