{"id":99,"date":"2016-04-25T14:40:46","date_gmt":"2016-04-25T14:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/?p=99"},"modified":"2021-02-12T09:22:21","modified_gmt":"2021-02-12T14:22:21","slug":"how-nasas-microwave-radar-designed-for-space-saved-lives-after-earthquake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/2016\/04\/25\/how-nasas-microwave-radar-designed-for-space-saved-lives-after-earthquake\/","title":{"rendered":"How NASA’s microwave radar – designed for space – saved lives after earthquake"},"content":{"rendered":"

With recent earthquakes in Japan and Ecuador, we were reminded of life-saving NASA technology that helped locate survivors in last year’s Nepal quake. We spoke with\u00a0Jim Lux, Task Manager for the FINDER project, which was first used in Nepal<\/a>. \u00a0The two companies that are producing FINDER units are both helping search and rescue teams at the most recent earthquake sites. SpecOps Group is currently in Japan with FINDER, and R4 is in Ecuador<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

One year ago today, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Nepal. CNN reported <\/a>that the death toll from the massive quake exceeded 8,000. An additional\u00a017,800 people were injured.\u00a0The search and rescue operation went on for days:\u00a0Survivors were pulled from beneath the rubble as much as a week after the quake. Much of the damage occurred\u00a0in remote villages, making search and rescue even more difficult to staff. The ability to quickly locate survivors\u00a0in order to prioritize rescue operations was crucial.<\/p>\n

FINDER\u00a0is\u00a0a portable radar device developed by NASA.\u00a0It enables search and rescue teams to scan\u00a0an area of debris for survivors without entering the debris field. FINDER looks\u00a0for heartbeats and respiration. It was used to search\u00a0multiple collapsed buildings in the Nepalese village of Chautara.\u00a0<\/span> <\/p>\n

\u201cEmergency workers were able to identify four men who’d been trapped in Nepal’s rubble\u2014and then save them\u2014thanks to a novel technology: advanced heartbeat detection.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Brian Clark Howard, National Geographic<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Image credit: www.jpl.nasa.gov<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

What is FINDER?<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response (FINDER<\/a>) is a portable, multi-channel radar housed in airline carry-on style luggage. It was designed to detect a human heartbeat buried beneath 30 feet of rubble. FINDER was designed to save people, and that\u2019s exactly what it did on its first<\/em> field deployment.<\/p>\n

As FINDER is again at the front lines of search and rescue operations, we discussed the engineering effort and technology that went into creating FINDER with Jim Lux:<\/p>\n

Q: How did the FINDER project start?<\/span><\/p>\n

A: FINDER started when FEMA was looking for a tool to help with mass disasters, such as the Haiti earthquake, where you have hundreds of collapsed structures. They wanted something that they could walk down the street and figure out which structures had victims in them, and which didn’t\u00a0.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: How does FINDER work?<\/span><\/p>\n

A: The radar illuminates the rubble pile and receives reflections back from a disaster site, including the victim(s). FINDER looks for changes in the reflection that indicate movement, and then checks to see if those movements can be attributed to human heartbeats (1 mm variations) and respiration (1 cm variations). It can distinguish human respiration from animals or mechanical movements.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: How long did it take to get to the FINDER version that was used in Nepal?<\/span><\/p>\n

A: We started really working on the design in the fall of 2012, and began\u00a0building the first portable prototype in January 2013. Our first prototype went through field tests at the Fairfax County, VA rubble site in April 2013. \u00a0After\u00a0a few\u00a0iterations, we had our final prototype ready in September 2013.<\/span><\/p>\n

The units like the one that went to Nepal were a slightly updated version of that prototype, improved for easier production, but still basically the same design.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: What was the biggest technical challenge for this project?<\/span><\/p>\n

A: I think the biggest challenge was putting together a team that could do this in the short time that we had to complete the project. The basic pieces of the technology all existed in different places. We needed to\u00a0recast them to this specific application; that required a multidisciplinary approach. We had people who did the antennas, people who do radio frequency design, people who developed the software, people who developed the user interface, and then things like packaging. We had to make it all fit in a box that could go\u00a0in an overhead compartment of an airplane.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: What are FINDER\u2019s main hardware components?<\/span><\/p>\n

A: There\u2019s the Pelican case that holds the radar and a handheld Toughbook tablet. The Pelican case has 5 JPL-designed and built RF modules: 1 transmitter and 4 receivers. Each module has a microcontroller, RF components and a patch antenna. They\u2019re connected to an embedded PC, which also has a GPS receiver and camera connected.\u00a0 The radar is a Wi-Fi access point that the tablet computer connects to for communication.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: What software was used to design FINDER?<\/span><\/p>\n

A: We used quite a lot of software to design FINDER, and of course, there\u2019s an essential component of software in FINDER.\u00a0 Our initial designs and modeling were done with purpose-specific programs written in MATLAB<\/span> <\/a>to do things like simulate the radar behavior and build finite element models for simulation. We wrote a MATLAB program that generates a simulated rubble pile by virtually dropping random shaped and sized pieces of rubble into a virtual box. The program generates a scene file full of constructive solid geometry primitives for later rendering, and fills in voxels for the finite element model. The actual finite element propagation model was done with\u00a0FORTRAN. A MATLAB program reads the model output and generates graphs and analyses. We used POVray as a 3-d rendering engine to generate pictures of the simulated rubble.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our post analysis of test data and adjustment of operating parameters used MATLAB to read the log files generated by the victim detection code, and to get statistics across multiple data sets.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: Can you tell us about the software running on FINDER when it is in the field?<\/span><\/p>\n

A: The FINDER unit itself has a variety of software. The microcontroller in the RF modules is a Teensy 3.1 (an Arduino-like device from PJRC.com) programmed in a combination of C\/C++.\u00a0 The actual victim detection is compiled MATLAB <\/a><\/span>running on the tablet PC.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: What other applications is FINDER used for?<\/span><\/p>\n

A: \u00a0In addition to search and rescue in rubble application, FINDER can locate victims of snow avalanches. In an avalanche, there\u2019s a fairly large area to search, and the current search technology basically relies on sticking a long probe into the snow and seeing if you hit something that feels like a victim.\u00a0 Avalanche beacons do help, but they get you into the general area, and then you go to the probes.\u00a0 FINDER can help detect victims who weren\u2019t carrying a beacon.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: Does FINDER have applications in space as well?<\/span><\/p>\n

A: FINDER does have applications in space. There\u2019s the original application of measuring an astronaut\u2019s heart rate with a non-contact sensor. There\u2019s a whole lot more, though: what we really have is a small, low power, non-contact distance sensor that has relatively low processing requirements to make a measurement.\u00a0 So if you\u2019re designing a spacecraft that can rendezvous with another spacecraft, small radar sensors like those in FINDER can be pretty useful: it has a wide field of view, and it can easily and accurately measure the range and velocity of something 100 meters or more away.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: The FINDER system has been released to two companies for commercial roll-out. Does that mean your team is finished with this project? If not, what\u2019s next?<\/span><\/p>\n

A: As you say, the Search and Rescue FINDER is in commercial production, but there\u2019s a lot of other applications for the sensor. We\u2019ve been looking at other medical device applications, not so much for measuring heart rate, but for more sophisticated measurements. We can measure small changes in the motion, and depending on the frequency, we can detect the motion of tissues under the skin.\u00a0You might be able to have something like a non-contact microwave stethoscope, or perhaps we can directly measure the motion of the heart.\u00a0 We\u2019re also doing some work on extending the detection range and combining the FINDER sensor with other sensors.<\/span><\/p>\n

At JPL, we\u2019re always interested in reducing the size, weight, and power requirements, so I think we can expect to see smaller, lighter FINDER-type sensors in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

FINDER is another great example of how technology, originally designed for space applications, has found an extraordinary alternate use. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce added FINDER\u00a0to its list of technologies<\/a>\u00a0having a momentous impact here on Earth.\u00a0<\/strong>FINDER\u00a0joins an elite club of venerable technology from NASA, which includes memory foam, ear thermometers, and artificial limbs<\/a>. \u00a0NASA has an online\u00a0magazine dedicated to\u00a0spinoff technology. Check it out\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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With recent earthquakes in Japan and Ecuador, we were reminded of life-saving NASA technology that helped locate survivors in last year’s Nepal quake. We spoke with\u00a0Jim Lux, Task Manager for… read more >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3046,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions\/3046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}