Both man-made and natural disasters such as earthquakes and terrorist attacks can result in people being trapped under debris and collapsed structures. In these critical situations, a timely and effective response is crucial and can prevent or significantly reduce the number of casualties. This is why First responders and rescue teams need to be equipped with cutting edge tools and specialised instrumentations in order to enhance their capabilities, namely in terms of accuracy, quick localization, and reduction of false alarms. 

The S&R project will design, implement and test through a series of large scale pilot scenarios a highly interoperable open architecture platform for first responders enhancing their decision making and providing a dynamic common operational picture of the crisis. The S&R platform will allow to easily incorporate next generation solutions such as: 

• Front-End equipment systems and collection tools to acquire relevant and sensible information in real time (e.g. sensors, drones, rescue robots, smart glasses smart uniforms, first aid for kids’ device characterized by the usage of innovative textile materials, first aid devices, and masks). 
• Data Fusion and Mediation Systems, to fuse information coming from those heterogeneous sources and provide a more detailed and accurate situational\context awareness to the decision makers and to the command centres. 
• Back-End applications, services and portals, to provide decision support capabilities to crisis stakeholders. 

Upcoming Workshops 

The project is organising two open workshops in the coming months: 

• 30 March 2021 – People with disabilities in Search and Rescue Operations 
• 14 April 2021 – End-User Requirements and Beyond

For more information on these events visit the project’s website www.search-and-rescue.eu.

Follow the project on social media:
Twitter: @SAR_H2020 
LinkedIn: @Search and Rescue Project 

As part of the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, Search & Rescue and the related projects ASSISTANCE, FASTER, INTREPID, PathoCERT, RESPOND-A, RESPONDRONE, CURSOR, SIXTHSENSE and INGENIOUS have received funding under the same topic SU-DRS02-2018-2019-2020 to develop technologies for first responders.