BURIED BODY DETECTION IN THE AFTERMATH OF LANDSLIDES

Abstract

During landslides, huge layers of mud is covered across an area. This makes it difficult
to search for objects like human body buried or stuck below the earth. Rescuers have to
rely on local sources to know the location of house, building, etc. or the position of the
person, which is merely an approximation. We came up with a solution to this problem.
Using Arduino along with methods of signal processing, a electromagnetic wave can be
generated. These signals are capable of penetrating the ground. On analyzing the time
difference between the transmitted wave and received wave, the depth of the object can
be calculated and their phase difference might give the rough size of the object. Two di-
rectional antennas are placed where one acts as transmitter and other one as receiver. The
device is made to run for few seconds and the signal voltage values from the transmitter-
receiver is plotted. The comparison of both signals side-by-side is displayed as an output.
The received signal contains noise from the reflected wave. It is passed into a low-pass
filter to remove noise and then it can be used for phase-difference calculation. This device
can be utilized by rescue operators to map the ground and understand the depth and sizes
of objects buried beneath the ground and therefore, use it to find human bodies.