Development of a wearable device to provide electronic assistance to search and rescue dogs

Purpose: The dog’s ability to find people and indicate their location is biologically efficient; however, this work suggested that it is possible to increase dog performance by associating it with technology resources. Dogs are trained to search and rescue, working under the supervision of their handlers efficiently. Also, the handler can identify signs of animal stress or fatigue that may compromise the animal’s integrity and thus act to avoid such situations. The goal of this project is to create a wearable device that allows sensing, geolocation, and communication to the search and rescue dog, allowing it to monitor the state of health of the animal and increasing its efficiency in rescue operations and at the same time sending of commands to the dog. Methods: This equipment was implemented into a dog vest, thus characterizing a wearable device (WD). Commercial hardware modules were used to equip a tactical vest and integrate them, using a Python program developed on a Raspberry PI. The animal used for testing was not trained for search and rescue dog tasks. The validation test was done to verify, in a controlled environment, if the prototype meets the project requirements, which are the capture of sensor information, geographical location, and online video transmission, besides the ability to receive signals to activate devices of command in the animal vest. Results: The results showed that the hardware responded to the software up to 50 m from the handler without significative signal loss. Within this range, the prototype proved to be effective in proving the viability of the planned features. Conclusion: Considering that the animal works under the supervision of the handler at a distance of visual contact, the prototype meets sufficient requirements to prove its purpose. Therefore, the development of a wearable device to monitor health status and provide electronic assistance for its operation via GPS, online images, and environmental sensors proves viable using the communication technology suggested by the work. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to The Brazilian Society of Biomedical Engineering 2024.