Thermal Camera Use for Evaluation of Patients and Injured in Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear Events

Abstract

Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear (CBRN) areas contain various risks due to their structure. Chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats can create separate or combined risks. For this reason, it is not possible to enter the scene safely without detecting the risks that may occur in a possible CBRN accident or disaster. Since the risk assessment in the incident area takes a long time, no team can enter the scene and find information and intervention until the risk assessment is done. In this article, it is studied the determination of the general health status of people in hazardous CBRN zones via a thermal camera. It is obvious that there is a continuous need to obtain information about the scene of the incident such as the alive, sick, and injured people in the situation of hard-to-reach and highly hazardous CBRN areas. In addition, autonomous analysis techniques were studied on the obtained images. In this study, it is focused on the determination of health status according to body temperature measurement, which is one of the vital signs, by the advantages of applying to more than one person without contact provided by thermal cameras integrated into a UAV. In addition, autonomous analysis techniques were studied on the obtained images. Within the scope of the study, a preliminary study was implemented on how thermal cameras can be used to evaluate vital signs in CBRN cases and to evaluate exposure levels according to body temperature.