← Selected Work Hardware · Sensor Fusion · 🏆 1st @ StarkHacks

RescueVision

An mmWave + UWB victim-location system that helps first responders find people through drywall, smoke, and fire — and renders them in the responder's own AR frame.

TI IWR6843 mmWaveESP32 + ESP-NNQorvo UWBiOS · ARKit VIOBLE
Functional prototype · full case study in progress
RescueVision
Hero render / capture coming
Role
Team of 4 · sensing + fusion
Timeline
Apr – May 2026
Context
StarkHacks @ Purdue · 1st place
Mentor
Cameron Villone (Analog Devices)

Overview

A wall-mounted hub sweeps a 60 GHz mmWave radar through 360° to locate people inside a building — distinguishing active from stationary/unconscious — then publishes their positions to a responder's phone. The phone fuses UWB ranging with ARKit visual-inertial odometry so each detection lands in the responder's own frame of reference, even from far away with no line of sight.

The problem

First responders entering an unfamiliar building have no good way to know where the people inside are — especially if those people are stationary or unconscious and can't call out. A persistently installed sensor hub plus a responder phone app can deliver that, cheaply, even through walls.

Highlights

Through-wall sensing

A TI IWR6843AOPEVM running the Vital-Signs & People-Tracking binary uses a 120° 60 GHz scan; the onboard DSP identifies people by detected vitals and movement.

360° hub control loop

An ESP32 configures the radar over USB host, steps a stepper 90°→360° for full coverage with overlap, and runs ESP-NN to classify tracks as active / unconscious / phantom.

Frame-of-reference math

Detections are transformed sensor → hub via SolidWorks-derived transforms + stepper angle, then the app pairs UWB ranging with ARKit VIO (Gauss-Jordan) to place them in the responder's frame.

Why sensor fusion

No single sensor solves it: radar sees through walls but not absolute position; UWB + VIO give the responder-relative geometry. Fusing them is what wins the "find the victim" problem.

Results

Demo

This is a condensed case study. A full write-up — architecture diagram, deeper decisions, and more media — is on the way. Want the details now? Reach out.