2019 Innovations in Power and Advanced Computing Technologies (i-PACT)

Design of Human Detection Robot for Natural

calamity Rescue Operation
Alvin Joseph
School of Electrical Engineering
Vellore Institute of Technology
Vellore-632014, TamilNadu , India
alvin.joseph03@gmail.com
Vishal Parmar
School of Electrical Engineering
Vellore Institute of Technology
Vellore-632014, TamilNadu , India
Parmarvishal0797@gmail.com
Bagyaveereswaran V
School of Electrical Engineering
Vellore Institute of Technology
Vellore-632014, TamilNadu , India
vbagyaveereswaran@vit.ac.in

Abstract —The aim of our work is to develop a robot using
suitable sensors to detect human being trapped behind a wall
or under the rubble which can help the rescue team during
natural calamities like earthquakes. The proposed robot model
uses a radar sensor through which radio energy signals are
sent. These signals on detecting humans will reflect back and
will be caught by the receiver. The buzzer will start buzzing
once the reflected radio signal is received by the receiver
circuit. The robot is designed in such a way that it can be
controlled by mobile phone custom application using Bluetooth
module. The robot chassis structure is such that it can move in
the roughest conditions that can be expected in earthquake hit
sites and with the sensors mounted on it, the robot can help the
rescue teams to detect human beings quickly.
Keywords—Robot, Sensor, Earthquake, Rescue, Bluetooth
I. INTRODUCTION
According to the information obtained from the
National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC), there are
about on an average of 20,000 earthquakes every year and
around 50 each day globally. However, it turns out that
approximately about millions of earthquakes are estimated
to occur every year which are too weak to be recorded [1].
We observe bridges and buildings collapsing as
well as natural disasters like earthquakes floods occurring
all over the world. At the time of disaster several humans
are being trapped in the cavities created by the collapsed
building either in conscious or unconscious state. Although
it has been observed that radars are used to detect and track
objects, it is not certain that the tracked object is a human or
not [2]. In order to save lives in such rescue operations it is
of utmost importance that the rescue team is well equipped
[3,4].
The current techniques that are being used for the
purpose of detection of human beings buried under the
debris include the utilizing of dogs or some special optical
devices [5]. However, these techniques prove to be
inadequate in helping to recover human victims lying
underneath a few feet, especially when the victims are
completely trapped below or it's not possible for them to
respond to the signal which could help the rescue team
detect them. Hence it is necessary to build a new sensitive
life-detection system which can be helpful to find out for
human victims trapped deep under earthquake rubble [6]. It
is possible to remotely observe the physiological status of
wounded objects lying on the ground with the help of
microwave radiations [7,8].
In this paper we will be designing a smart model in
the form of a robot which we can control using our mobile
phone by bluetooth and by installing the suitable application
we can control the movement of the robot by giving it the
directions of either moving left, right, forward or
backwards. We will be integrating the robot with two
sensors namely the Doppler radar sensor and the PIR sensor
to trace humans behind the wall and for detecting humans
under the rubble we would propose a microwave sensor in
which electromagnetic signals will be sent which penetrates
through the rubble and if there is any object detected there
would be a deviation in the observed readings which would
be an indication of a human body underneath. Our aim
through this proposed model is to provide a better solution
to the rescue teams to save as many lives as possible.
II. METHODOLOGY
The block diagram of the autonomous robot is
shown in Fig. 1. The complete circuit diagram for the robot
is shown in Fig. 2. The movement of the wheels in the robot
will be controlled by the motor drivers. The movement of
the robot is controlled by two DC motors mounted on the
front and the back side. The front side motor helps the robot
to turn left or right while the forward and the backward
movements are driven by the rear side motor. The command
to the robot is given through Bluetooth using an android
application that can be downloaded on the Mobile phone
The Arduino UNO is programmed to manage the entire
system. Thus, the robot will move depending on the button
we click from the mobile application. The robot is designed
such that we can control the movements of the robot through
bluetooth from the cell phone.

978-1-5386-8190-9/19/$31.00 © 2019 IEEE 1

 2019 Innovations in Power and Advanced Computing Technologies (i-PACT)

Start
No No

Move the robot

Is Doppler radar sensor on? Is PIR sensor on?

Yes
Stop robot & check if PIR sensor on?
Yes
No Yes
Tell rescue team to search that spot Ring the buzzer as human is detected

Stop

Fig. 1 Block Diagram of the Autonomous Robot

Fig.2: - Circuit diagram of the robot

The circuit diagram for the bluetooth controlled robot is

presented in Fig. 3.

Fig. 3: - Block diagram for bluetooth controlled robot

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 2019 Innovations in Power and Advanced Computing Technologies (i-PACT)

III. CIRCUIT DESIGN D. Motor driver:

The circuit to control the robot movement and sensing is The motor driver is used to operate the front and
shown in fig.2. The different modules used in the design is the rear DC motors which in turn control the motion of the
discussed here. robot. It is actually a current amplifier and converts the low
current signal coming from a controller and amplifies it to
A. Arduino uno: provide the high current required for running the DC
The sensor is mounted on the microcontroller motors.
board Arduino Uno which is based on ATmega 328. The
board has 14 digital I/O pin-outs which includes six analog
input pins and six pins for Pulse width modulation (PWM)
outputs. It also consists of an ICSP or an ISP header, a IV. DEMONSTRATION
power jack, a ceramic resonator (16 MHz), a USB
connection and a reset button.

B. Sensors
Doppler radar sensor:
Doppler radar sensors have enabled many
technological advances such as single chip integration [9].
These sensors detect the microwave signals from the object
behind a wall or an obstacle and is thus very useful in
military and security applications. [10] The Doppler radar
sensor is a micro-wave sensor. The principle is simple, it
sends microwave radiations and measures the difference
between the sent wave frequency and the response wave
frequency. The difference in the obtained frequency is
proportional to the speed of the object it detects. Fig.5:- Interfacing the Doppler radar and PIR sensor
Interfacing the Doppler radar sensor and PIR sensor is
PIR sensor: discussed in this section. The assembly of the sensors and
The PIR (Passive Infrared sensor) is used to detect the arduino as shown in Fig. 5. Once the arduino code is
human beings when they are moving [11]. It works on the burned into the arduino uno module we test the working of
principle that any moving living being will block the IR the Doppler radar sensor and the PIR sensor
light falling on the sensor and thus help in detecting the The Arduino Uno module along with the Doppler radar
presence of a moving object. The sensor has two slots on sensor and PIR sensor interfaced on it is mounted on a
which the IR radiations from objects in its field of view falls robotic chassis and the appropriate codes are written.
and when any warm mobile being, humans or even animals
comes in the way of radiation falling on one of the slots, a
positive differential between the two slots is created and
that’s how the presence of a moving object is detected. This
type of electronic sensor is commonly used as a motion
detector sensor.

C. Chassis:
The chassis is the base frame of a car on which the
sensors are mounted as shown in Fig. 4.

V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Fig. 4 Chassis for the robot
The Doppler radar sensor and the PIR sensor are
interfaced with Arduino module similar to an AND gate
configuration where only if both the sensors are in ‘ON’
state it would be the confirmation of the presence of a
human being. A PIR sensor can detect a human being only
in open space by detecting human body radiations.
However, a PIR sensor cannot detect a human behind a wall.
This is where the Doppler radar sensor comes into effect.

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 2019 Innovations in Power and Advanced Computing Technologies (i-PACT)
The Doppler radar sensor, which works on the
Doppler principle can help in detecting motion of moving
objects through by transmitting a 10 GHz
microwave frequency electromagnetic signal and on waiting
for the signal to receive back it monitors the shift in
frequency signal. A sight motion of the trapped and
struggling human being detected behind the wall will alter
the frequency of the signal that will be received and this will
inform the rescue team of a potential human presence as
Fig. 6: Output of the detection as displayed on the screen
pressed. The robot continues to move in a particular
direction till the next command is given. The command
guides the rear or the front motor depending upon the
requirement whether the robot has to move in the front-
back direction or the left- right direction.
Thus, with the bluetooth controlled car along with the
Doppler radar and PIR sensors mounted on it we can run the
car on the earthquake site and help the rescue team detect
human beings.
BLUETOOTH NOT CONNECTED
FORWARD
RIGHT
BACKWARD LEFT
Fig. 7: Bluetooth controller application
shown in Fig. 6. The moment the wall is being removed and
human body radiations are detected the PIR sensor is turned
on which would confirm the presence of a human being.
When we click on a particular button in Bluetooth
controller application as shown in Fig. 7 then the movement
of the robot is managed by the Bluetooth module wherein
the robot moves in the right or left directions or even in the
forward or backward direction as per the command switch
VI CONCLUSION
The presented sensor combination can be used to
detect the human presence at different locations and under
the debris caused by the natural calamities like the
earthquake. It is not practically possible for the rescue team
personnel to cover the entire area in a short span of time.
This is where our proposed model comes in handy [12]. In
the present study the locations chosen are open space,
behind a transparent door and behind a wall. However, there
is a limitation that a slight movement is required for the
Doppler radar sensor to detect the presence of a human
being. Therefore, if there is no motion present, the Doppler
sensor cannot detect human being presence and for such
instances we propose a strong microwave sensor to be used.
The Doppler radar sensor being too sensitive can also detect
any type of motion which could not necessarily be a human
being hence it is necessary to integrate it with a PIR sensor
which turns on the moment it detects human body radiations
and would confirm the presence of a human being by
sounding the buzzer.
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 2019 Innovations in Power and Advanced Computing Technologies (i-PACT)
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