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CURSOR PROJECT In the face of natural or man-made disaster, urban search and rescue teams and other first responders like police, or civil protection, race against the clock to locate survivors within the critical 72 golden hours’ timeframe, often at their own peril due to the presence of instable structures or hazardous environments. This is where CURSOR, an EU and Japan Science and Technology Agency-funded project, comes into play. In order to speed up the detection of survivors trapped in collapsed buildings and to improve working conditions for the first responders, we are designing an innovative CURSOR Search and Rescue Kit (CURSOR SaR Kit) using 1) Soft Miniaturised Underground Robotic Finders (SMURFs): The SMURF will carry innovative sensors which are called “Sniffer”, and which are able to smell humans in the rubble and detect and differentiate between live and deceased humans. The SMURF will also carry audio and video technology which will be used for detecting the location of the victims as well as a channel for communicating with victims. 2) Drones Mothership Drone: The mothership drone serves as a stationary communications drone, coordinating communication between drone-system and soft, miniaturised robots. Transport Drones: The transport drone transports multiple Soft Miniaturised Underground Robotic Finders (SMURFs) to the disaster site and drops them off in the debris. Ground penetrating radar drone: The ground-penetrating radar drone carries the ground penetrating radar (GPR) which scans the disaster site to detect signs of any trapped victims. 3) Geophones Geophones detect noise made by trapped people in rubble. 4) Communication and localisation system A communication and localisation system enables the localisation of equipment, operators, and victims inside and on top of the debris. 5) Information and decision-support system An information and decision-support system collects all the data to support decision-making. The CURSOR SaR kit is easy and fast to deploy and will: Reduce the time for Urban Search and Rescue teams in detecting and locating trapped victims in disaster areas Improve the protection of first responders’ health and safety Reduce the time for the deployment of search and rescue personnel and equipment, situational assessment & onsite disaster response Lastly, the project will also deepen the understanding between first responders and solution providers The CURSOR SaR Kit is open for the integration of existing tools and technologies used by search & rescue teams today or developed by other research projects. 20 lab tests, 10 small-scale field tests and 2 CURSOR SaR Kit field tests will be conducted in realistic scenarios to develop an easy and quickly deployable SaR Kit of integrated technological components which directly respond to the first responder needs. Get involved today! Be part of this unique approach and help us save more lives! Get in touch if you want to participate in the testing process or if you have an interesting tool or technology we should be looking at. Together, we will make a difference.