Wireless Estimation of Canine Pose for Search and Rescue

In this paper we discuss the use of accelerometers and Bluetooth to monitor canine pose in the context of common poses observed in Urban Search and Rescue dogs. We discuss the use of the Canine Pose System in a disaster environment, and propose techniques for determining canine pose. In addition we discuss the challenges with this approach in such environments. The paper presents the experimental results obtained from the Heavy Urban Search and Rescue disaster simulation, where experiments were conducted using multiple canines, which show that angles can be derived from acceleration readings. Our experiments show that similar angles were measured for each of the poses, even when measured on multiple USAR canines of varying size. We also found measurable and consistent differences between each of the poses, making them clearly distinguishable from one another, again even when comparing with different USAR canines.