Cipher

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Large scale disasters (both natural and artificial) are a common worldwide phenomenon resulting in environments that are not safe for immediate human investigation. When disaster relief teams attempt investigation of these hazardous terrains, they must first evaluate the potential risks imposed upon them. In the event that these risks may cause more harm than good, the teams have no choice but to wait until the threat is mitigated before initiating a search mission. Why put a life on the line when there is no guarantee of finding any survivors? This means that precious time is wasted when it could have been used to potentially save a person’s life. Even if immediate investigation is possible, time is still an issue considering that human traversal is slow (and inefficient) in comparison to that of a robotic device.

The solution: Captain Majid, an RC robot that is designed to be able to quickly and efficiently scale high risk environments in search for possible survivors.

Captain Majid serves as an aid to firefighters, first responders, police, and/or disaster response forces when they need access to an area deemed unsafe for human traversal in hopes of pinpointing the exact location of a potential survivor. Although Captain Majid does not do the rescuing itself, it allows for quick and secure location of survivors so that rescue teams can focus all their efforts on the actual rescue rather than exhausting needed resources and energy solely on the search. As an added bonus, Captain Majid is easy to use and therefore does not require extensive training to maneuver. The device is remote controlled, meaning that disaster relief teams have full manual control over where Captain Majid goes.

Using its embedded video camera, thermal camera, microphone, and speaker, Captain Majid can detect any signs of life and relay this information to the teams through a mobile device. The video camera and microphone provide a live audio and visual stream of the surrounding area, while the thermal camera monitors the terrain for temperatures comparable to that of a live human. In the event that a human is located (detected by the thermal camera), an alert message is relayed onto the mobile device, accompanied by an alarm radiating from Captain Majid. Considering that Captain Majid does not cost more than a few thousand dollars retail (in comparison to a cost of tens of thousands of dollars for similar units), disaster relief teams can send out Captain Majid into critically dangerous areas without fear of ruining the device in the case where a safe return is not possible (prioritizes gathering information/finding possible survivors over Captain Majid).