Developing and Testing a Software for Search and Rescue in Rubble Piles Based on Microseismic Signals

Passive microseismics is used in Search and Rescue operations to localize people under piles of rubble. Currently, an operator can evaluate the approximate position of the survivor using an array of geophones by an iterative move-and-listen procedure which is time-consuming. To shorten this procedure a completely new way of using a microseismic equipment is proposed. The idea is to deploy the geophones on the piles and elaborate the digitized noise produced by the survivor with a software able to localize his/her position. The objective of this work is to develop and test this software which is able to produce an automatic and fast localization in the 3D space taking advantage not only of signal intensity but also of the information given by time delays between different geophones. The results are encouraging: the percentage of microseismic events that were localized with the desired accuracy is between 50% and 75% depending on debris properties, geophone configuration and array size. Further improvements are expected by refining the automatic picking procedure which represents the major challenge. By introducing this approach within the search and rescue operations, the total time required from sensor deployment to 3D location can be reduced to less than 10 minutes.