Technology-Based Spotting of Trapped Individuals
IDF Home Front Command and IAI/ELTA are developing a system for spotting trapped individuals by locating their cellular phone signal. The system will enable rescuers to spot trapped individuals within a radius of 150 meters while providing them with an indication of the trapped individual's precise location and depth
Ami Rojkes Dombe
| 15/12/2016
Deployment of the Aluma system (Photo: IDF)
IDF Home Front Command and the ELTA Division of IAI are developing a system for spotting trapped individuals by locating their cellular phone signal. The system, designated "Aluma" (Hebrew for 'Beam' or 'Sheaf') has already been employed during a serious incident where a car park on HaBarzel Street in Ramat HaChayil collapsed during construction in September 2016. During that incident, along with the new Aluma system, IDF Home Front Command also employed multicopters for the first time, to photograph the site for the purpose of planning and coordinating the rescue operations.
"The system is currently under development. During the incident in Ramat HaChayil, we employed the system to spot missing persons trapped in the rubble," says Col. Itzik Guy, Head of the IDF Home Front Command's Planning Department. "We have derived several lessons from this incident for the benefit of the subsequent development of the system. The development process is scheduled to be completed by the second quarter of 2017, at which time we would have to consolidate a decision as to whether we should purchase the system and how many units should be purchased."
Col. Guy heads the department in charge of force build-up at IDF Home Front Command, which includes weapon system and technology development along with design and operating doctrines for new technologies. The personnel of this department consists primarily of compulsory service troopers with a small element of reservists.
Search Radius of 150 meters
"The Aluma system can pick up the signal emitted by a cellular phone within a radius of 150 meters and provide the rescuers with the precise location and depth of the trapped individual," explains Col. Guy. "It is capable of acquiring four different cellular networks and providing a lateral picture. It's not just who is located where, but also where the air pockets are located inside the rubble. It can also associate a telephone number with the personal details of the trapped individual. This system provides you with an arrowhead, a pinpoint indication based on cellular signal spotting. That was how we located one of the casualties at the incident in Ramat HaChayil. A mobile phone has an internal battery with a longer life than that of the main battery, which provides the minimum output required in order to spot the trapped individual."
In addition to the spotting system, multicopters were also employed in Ramat HaChayil and linked with the cellular spotting system. In other words, the spotting system provided the multicopter operating system with the trapped individuals' location data in real time. "In this way, a rescuer working at a depth of dozens of meters could deploy the multicopter above the point where the trapped individual had been spotted. This made the rescue operation more efficient as the rescuers knew, throughout the process, that they are above the precise spot," explains Col. Guy.
"Along with the technological devices employed in Ramat HaChayil, we also employed local population intelligence. In one case, we followed the electrical cable of the power tool used by one of the trapped individuals and that's how we reached him. The technologies, along with the questioning of the local population, enable us to determine where the trapped individuals are located very quickly. The difficult part is getting to them. In Ramat HaChayil we had to work our way through four layers of concrete – that's more than one meter of concrete.
"In a situation of this type you operate under conditions of on-going uncertainty. Air pockets, trapped individuals who are still alive. Only after 24 hours we understood how the construction site had collapsed and realized that it was a total collapse. The chances of surviving inside an air pocket in a situation of this type are very slim. In one case, it took us six hours to get to one of the trapped individuals and eight hours more to extricate him. It is a very complex situation. Even with a dead body, you want to extricate that person's body in a dignified way, so that he may be laid to rest properly."
The incident in Ramat HaChayil was an evolving situation, during which IDF Home Front Command hoisted an excavator into the space of the collapsed car park using a 500-ton hoist. IDF Home Front Command explained that this was neither a routine operation nor a part of a wartime scenario. Another aspect of the rescue operation in Ramat HaChayil involved the technological cooperation with civilian companies. In addition to the cooperation with ELTA, hoists, trucks capable of vacuuming earth and diamond blade concrete disc saws were also employed, as well as other resources and operations.
In view of the incident in Ramat HaChayil, the question is how to provide all of the battalions of IDF Home Front Command with such technologies, and whether some of these capabilities should be assimilated in public buildings. Eventually, cellular signal reception capabilities are available in the form of tactical suitcases, so why not keep a case of this type in every shopping mall or public building?
"Such technological capabilities were intended originally for wartime reference scenarios," explains Col. Guy. "In the context of such a scenario, we will deploy them to complex destruction sites. For IDF Home Front Command we may consider a spotting kit for every rescue battalion. This may be implemented in the future and will also depend on the budget available. But keeping such a case in every shopping mall nation-wide will not provide you with an advantage if you do not have the tools required in order to actually reach the trapped individuals."
In a scenario of massive destruction like a war or an earthquake, IDF Home Front Command have realized that they will have to deal with rescue operations at complex or national priority sites. For this reason, they are developing a plan to train and provide more than one million civilians with basic rescue know-how. They are doing it in 4,000 classes for tenth graders nation-wide. Every year during the next decade, some 150,000 high-school students will be trained throughout the country.
"IDF Home Front Command will deal with a minor percentage of the trapped person cases," says Col. Guy. "IDF Home Front Command is only a small element of the over-all rescue force from a nation-wide perspective. Within a decade, we will have more than a million civilians who possess basic rescue know-how."
How does technology change the human capital of the rescue units?
Cellular spotting systems, multicopters and possibly other systems added in the future are changing the rescue world and compel IDF Home Front Command to allocate suitable manpower. "For the time being, these are technologies that only the people of my department operate," says Col. Guy. "We are yet to technologically decentralize (these technologies) to all of our battalions. Also bear in mind that the cellular and multicopter technologies are relatively simple to operate and enable you to easily execute operations that used to be very complex, like photographing the site from above for the purpose of planning the rescue operation.
"As far as multicopters are concerned, it is a matter of decision making. Multicopters are off-the-shelf products that are easy to acquire. The complexity is in introducing a new operational doctrine to the rescue battalions. It would be a matter of just a few months to introduce this capability to IDF Home Front Command once the decision has been made. Regarding the Aluma system, we will conduct a conclusive training exercise in 2017 and then decide whether to acquire it and how many systems we should purchase. The numbers will match the reference scenario. Initially, we may acquire capabilities for dealing with routine events. Subsequently, procurement may be expanded to cover wartime scenarios and the stocking of the emergency storage depots.
"Bear in mind that these are highly advanced capabilities in the rescue world that have almost no equal in other rescue units around the globe. I am not familiar with a similar capability of acquiring four cellular communication ranges by a single vehicle-mounted system. Admittedly, suitcase-based, short-range local systems are available around the world, but this is a substantial upgrading of the rescue capabilities. The use of multicopters is also regarded as an innovation in the rescue world. To this day, we have not seen, anywhere in the world, an operational rescue concept that utilizes the combined employment of multicopters and cellular spotting systems."
IDF Home Front Command and IAI/ELTA are developing a system for spotting trapped individuals by locating their cellular phone signal. The system will enable rescuers to spot trapped individuals within a radius of 150 meters while providing them with an indication of the trapped individual's precise location and depth
IDF Home Front Command and the ELTA Division of IAI are developing a system for spotting trapped individuals by locating their cellular phone signal. The system, designated "Aluma" (Hebrew for 'Beam' or 'Sheaf') has already been employed during a serious incident where a car park on HaBarzel Street in Ramat HaChayil collapsed during construction in September 2016. During that incident, along with the new Aluma system, IDF Home Front Command also employed multicopters for the first time, to photograph the site for the purpose of planning and coordinating the rescue operations.
"The system is currently under development. During the incident in Ramat HaChayil, we employed the system to spot missing persons trapped in the rubble," says Col. Itzik Guy, Head of the IDF Home Front Command's Planning Department. "We have derived several lessons from this incident for the benefit of the subsequent development of the system. The development process is scheduled to be completed by the second quarter of 2017, at which time we would have to consolidate a decision as to whether we should purchase the system and how many units should be purchased."
Col. Guy heads the department in charge of force build-up at IDF Home Front Command, which includes weapon system and technology development along with design and operating doctrines for new technologies. The personnel of this department consists primarily of compulsory service troopers with a small element of reservists.
Search Radius of 150 meters
"The Aluma system can pick up the signal emitted by a cellular phone within a radius of 150 meters and provide the rescuers with the precise location and depth of the trapped individual," explains Col. Guy. "It is capable of acquiring four different cellular networks and providing a lateral picture. It's not just who is located where, but also where the air pockets are located inside the rubble. It can also associate a telephone number with the personal details of the trapped individual. This system provides you with an arrowhead, a pinpoint indication based on cellular signal spotting. That was how we located one of the casualties at the incident in Ramat HaChayil. A mobile phone has an internal battery with a longer life than that of the main battery, which provides the minimum output required in order to spot the trapped individual."
In addition to the spotting system, multicopters were also employed in Ramat HaChayil and linked with the cellular spotting system. In other words, the spotting system provided the multicopter operating system with the trapped individuals' location data in real time. "In this way, a rescuer working at a depth of dozens of meters could deploy the multicopter above the point where the trapped individual had been spotted. This made the rescue operation more efficient as the rescuers knew, throughout the process, that they are above the precise spot," explains Col. Guy.
"Along with the technological devices employed in Ramat HaChayil, we also employed local population intelligence. In one case, we followed the electrical cable of the power tool used by one of the trapped individuals and that's how we reached him. The technologies, along with the questioning of the local population, enable us to determine where the trapped individuals are located very quickly. The difficult part is getting to them. In Ramat HaChayil we had to work our way through four layers of concrete – that's more than one meter of concrete.
"In a situation of this type you operate under conditions of on-going uncertainty. Air pockets, trapped individuals who are still alive. Only after 24 hours we understood how the construction site had collapsed and realized that it was a total collapse. The chances of surviving inside an air pocket in a situation of this type are very slim. In one case, it took us six hours to get to one of the trapped individuals and eight hours more to extricate him. It is a very complex situation. Even with a dead body, you want to extricate that person's body in a dignified way, so that he may be laid to rest properly."
The incident in Ramat HaChayil was an evolving situation, during which IDF Home Front Command hoisted an excavator into the space of the collapsed car park using a 500-ton hoist. IDF Home Front Command explained that this was neither a routine operation nor a part of a wartime scenario. Another aspect of the rescue operation in Ramat HaChayil involved the technological cooperation with civilian companies. In addition to the cooperation with ELTA, hoists, trucks capable of vacuuming earth and diamond blade concrete disc saws were also employed, as well as other resources and operations.
In view of the incident in Ramat HaChayil, the question is how to provide all of the battalions of IDF Home Front Command with such technologies, and whether some of these capabilities should be assimilated in public buildings. Eventually, cellular signal reception capabilities are available in the form of tactical suitcases, so why not keep a case of this type in every shopping mall or public building?
"Such technological capabilities were intended originally for wartime reference scenarios," explains Col. Guy. "In the context of such a scenario, we will deploy them to complex destruction sites. For IDF Home Front Command we may consider a spotting kit for every rescue battalion. This may be implemented in the future and will also depend on the budget available. But keeping such a case in every shopping mall nation-wide will not provide you with an advantage if you do not have the tools required in order to actually reach the trapped individuals."
In a scenario of massive destruction like a war or an earthquake, IDF Home Front Command have realized that they will have to deal with rescue operations at complex or national priority sites. For this reason, they are developing a plan to train and provide more than one million civilians with basic rescue know-how. They are doing it in 4,000 classes for tenth graders nation-wide. Every year during the next decade, some 150,000 high-school students will be trained throughout the country.
"IDF Home Front Command will deal with a minor percentage of the trapped person cases," says Col. Guy. "IDF Home Front Command is only a small element of the over-all rescue force from a nation-wide perspective. Within a decade, we will have more than a million civilians who possess basic rescue know-how."
How does technology change the human capital of the rescue units?
Cellular spotting systems, multicopters and possibly other systems added in the future are changing the rescue world and compel IDF Home Front Command to allocate suitable manpower. "For the time being, these are technologies that only the people of my department operate," says Col. Guy. "We are yet to technologically decentralize (these technologies) to all of our battalions. Also bear in mind that the cellular and multicopter technologies are relatively simple to operate and enable you to easily execute operations that used to be very complex, like photographing the site from above for the purpose of planning the rescue operation.
"As far as multicopters are concerned, it is a matter of decision making. Multicopters are off-the-shelf products that are easy to acquire. The complexity is in introducing a new operational doctrine to the rescue battalions. It would be a matter of just a few months to introduce this capability to IDF Home Front Command once the decision has been made. Regarding the Aluma system, we will conduct a conclusive training exercise in 2017 and then decide whether to acquire it and how many systems we should purchase. The numbers will match the reference scenario. Initially, we may acquire capabilities for dealing with routine events. Subsequently, procurement may be expanded to cover wartime scenarios and the stocking of the emergency storage depots.
"Bear in mind that these are highly advanced capabilities in the rescue world that have almost no equal in other rescue units around the globe. I am not familiar with a similar capability of acquiring four cellular communication ranges by a single vehicle-mounted system. Admittedly, suitcase-based, short-range local systems are available around the world, but this is a substantial upgrading of the rescue capabilities. The use of multicopters is also regarded as an innovation in the rescue world. To this day, we have not seen, anywhere in the world, an operational rescue concept that utilizes the combined employment of multicopters and cellular spotting systems."
