A researcher says he's developed a computer program that could help crews get to avalanche victims wearing radio beacons much more quickly than current methods. But they're not really taking the information and quantifying it. By using lightweight radios, global positioning receivers and pocket computers programmed with robotic search algorithms, as few as four searchers could zero in on a buried skier, Robinett said. In computer simulations, Robinett's method found victims four times faster than simulations of any published search scheme now in use.
Time is critical.
If a person is wearing a radio transmitter, searchers can hone in on that signal. But Robinett said most current techniques are not that advanced and don't combine the electronic information all the searchers are getting, as his computer program does. The steady stream of data from multiple sources allows search teams to refine the direction of the search. Robinett originally developed his program for the Department of Defense to help a swarm of tiny robots find the source of a chemical or biological attack. Finding the location of a radio-frequency sender and finding the source of a chemical attack turned out to be remarkably similar, Robinett said.