An image recognition system aimed at search activities using cyber search and rescue dogs. Issue 4 (3rd December 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Arnold, Solvi; Ohno, Kazunori; Hamada, Ryunosuke; Yamazaki, Kimitoshi
• Other Names: Schwertfeger Sören guestEditor.; Ohno Kazunori guestEditor.
• Is Part Of: Journal of field robotics. Volume 36:Issue 4(2019)
• Page Start: 677
• Page End: 695
• Publication Date: 2018-12-03
• Subjects: emergency response -- learning -- perception; Robots, Industrial -- Periodicals; Automatic control -- Periodicals; 629.892
• DOI: 10.1002/rob.21848
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1556-4959

Abstract

Abstract: Disaster response presents major challenges for robotics and computer vision alike. The Cyber‐Enhanced Canine Suit is a suit equipped with a camera, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), and various other sensors, to be worn by search and rescue (SAR) dogs for the purpose of enhancing SAR dog operations. This paper presents an image recognition system for use in disaster scenarios and its integration with the Cyber‐Enhanced Canine Suit platform. The system's intended use is to spot personal items of missing individuals or other visual clues in video streams from various disaster response platforms. The system facilitates quick learning of targets from limited data and makes providing that data quick and easy. It also provides backtrack recognition functionality, to rapidly find novel targets in the seen footage. We evaluated the recognition system on footage gathered in the field, obtaining promising results. Integrated with the Cyber‐Enhanced Canine Suit, the system can automatically plot detections of search targets onto a map display, to provide operators with a quick overview of what was seen where.