Search and Rescue Initial Response Tools

This proposal will result in innovative and life-saving software enabling first responders to easily see a heat map showing the probability of area for the missing person. Sending teams to the right area saves lives, resources, and time. New research into geographic models of subject behavior, detectability (effective sweep width), and search speed will for the first time provide planners with good estimates of search effectiveness (Probability of Success Rate). Using that information, an initial response tasking algorithm will map exactly where search teams should be tasked. Color coding will also show the relative priority of tasks. This will allow the power of formal search theory to be placed into the hands of initial responders with little to no formal training. The PI brings over 30 years of SAR field experience and over 20 years of SAR research experience to the problem including the creation of ISRID. At the start the TRL is 3 and at the end of Phase II we estimate 6-7. The research and development will allow a full suite of products to be developed. From durable plastic job aids, Lost Person Behavior smartphone apps, Survival apps, paper and e-book field guides, training courses, further enhancement to the International Search & Rescue Incident Database (ISRID), data collection tools, and a database of SAR agencies to software aimed at the initial SAR response (FIND), we are in a unique position to commercialize the effort, as SAR is our primary market since 1991.