When searching for missing persons, especially during emergency situations, such as catastrophic weather and infrastructure or geologic events, aerial reconnaissance can be an invaluable tool, particularly if the area is large and/or unstable. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with thermal imaging capabilities can help detect heat signatures from victims, even in low-visibility conditions. However, thermal imaging only detects heat signatures, it does not provide any additional information about the status of the victim. This is important because emergency personnel often treat victims on an as found basis, not on the degree of their current medical condition. This makes triage difficult, and victims in critical condition could be treated too late.
Researchers at Arizona State University have developed a system for a network of UAVs that can simultaneously detect vital signs from a living subject, communicate said vital signs (and other information), and also perform positioning estimation to determine the relative position with respect to other UAVs in the network. These UAVs can measure minute physiological parameters, such as respiratory and heart rates, through clothing and other obstructions, and share that information with a ground control station (GSC). Then, the GSC can determine the condition of the living being and decide if emergency services are needed. The UAVs can also detect other environmental information, such as debris, and share that information with other UAVs and the GSC. The UAVs can cover difficult terrain while sensing and communicating environmental and vital sign information to other UAVs and/or base stations.
Such a system could prove critical in search and rescue operations in natural disasters, as well as in reconnaissance or law enforcement missions in unknown territory.
Potential Applications
- Search and rescue
- Reconnaissance
- Surveillance
- Law enforcement
- Security
Benefits and Advantages
- UAVs with multiple sensory modalities
- Can determine the condition of the subject to help in triaging
- Can detect and locate human/non-human subjects
- Directly or obstructed
- Can communicate with other UAVs or devices in the network as well as GCS
- Can perform positioning estimation to determine the relative position with respect to other UAVs in the network
- UAVs enable safe searching in large, unstable/unsafe areas with low visibility or difficult terrain
For more information about this opportunity, please see
Sebastian et al – Front. Robot. AI – 2023
For more information about the inventor(s) and their research, please see