Rettmobil 2019

••• 10••• Innovationen Electronic rescue dog Smallest ever sensor for detecting people by smell T rained rescue dogs are still the best dis- aster workers – their sensitive noses help them to track down people buried by earthquakes or avalanches. Like all liv- ing creatures, however, dogs need to take breaks. They are also often not immediately available in disaster areas, and dog teams have to travel from further afield. A new measuring device from researchers at ETH Zurich led by Sotiris Pratsinis, Professor of Process Engineering, however, is always ready for use. The scientists had previously developed small and extremely sensitive gas sensors for acetone, ammonia, and iso- prene – all metabolic products that we emit in low concentrations via our breath or skin. The researchers have now combined these sensors in a device with two commercial sensors for CO 2 and moisture. Chemical “fingerprint” As shown by laboratory tests, this sen- sor combination can be quite useful when searching for entrapped people. “The com- bination of sensors for various chemical compounds is important, because the indi- vidual substances could come from sources other than humans. CO 2 , for example, could come from either a buried person or a fire source,” explains postdoc Andreas Günt- ner. The combination of sensors provides the scientists with reliable indicators of the presence of people. The researchers also showed that there are differences between the compounds emit- ted via our breath and skin. “Acetone and isoprene are typical substances that we mostly breathe out. Ammonia, however, is usually emitted through the skin,” explains ETH professor Pratsinis. In the experiments in the entrapment simulator, the partici- pants wore a breathing mask. In the first part of the experiment, the exhaled air was channelled directly out of the chamber; in the second part, it remained inside. This allowed the scientists to create separate breath and skin emission profiles. The ETH scientists’ gas sensors are the size of a small computer chip. “They are about as sensitive as most ion mobility spectrom- eters, which cost thousands of Swiss francs and are the size of a suitcase,” says Prat- sinis. “Our easy-to-handle sensor combi- nation is by far the smallest and cheapest device that is sufficiently sensitive to detect entrapped people. In a next step, we would like to test it during real conditions, to see whether it is suited for use in searches after earthquakes or avalanches.” While electronic devices are already in use during searches after earthquakes, these work with microphones and cameras. These only help to locate entrapped peo- ple who are capable of making themselves heard or are visible beneath ruins. The ETH scientists’ idea is to complement these re- sources with the chemical sensors. They are looking for industry partners to build a prototype. Drones and robots could also be equipped with the gas sensors. The three gas sensors developed at ETH Zurich Photo: ETH Zurich / Andreas Güntner Tracking dogs are often used after avalanches, as they are able to use their sensitive noses to locate people. Photo: Wolfgang Dirscherl / pixelio.de Anzeige TOP TROCK TOP TROCK zählt seit vielen Jah- ren zu den führenden Herstellern von Trockensystemen. Weltweit werden die Trockensysteme bei Feuerwehren, Kommunalbetrie- ben, Militär, Navy, Küstenwachen, Zivilschutz, Polizei, in der Indus- trie sowie auch im Sportbereich zur Trocknung jeglicher Art von Einsatz-, Arbeits- und Freizeitbe- kleidung verwendet. 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