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1
Litter, Jansen J. "Mobile robot for search and rescue." Ohio : Ohio University, 2004. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?ohiou1176921842.
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Steen, Thor Audun. "Search and Rescue Mission Using Multicopters." Thesis, Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet, Institutt for teknisk kybernetikk, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:no:ntnu:diva-25925.
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Search and rescue operations can greatly benefit from the use of autonomous unmanned aerial systems to survey the environment and collect evidence about the positions of missing persons. This thesis considers the design of an autonomous multicopter system for use in a search and rescue mission. The ArduPilot Mega is used as the autopilot and is presented together with detailed information about the utilized hardware and software. The design of a low- level control interface is implemented as an extension to APM:Copter using the MAVLink protocol allowing attitude or velocity control of the multicopter.Furthermore, promising methods for autonomous behavior are discussed and developed with the use of the low-level control interface. The integration of a camera is characterized as a vital part of the fully autonomous search and rescue muliticopter system and presented together with a method used to describe and estimate motion of a target object. The estimator used for the state estimation is the extended Kalman filter.Finally, experiments of the system are conducted at a test field to demonstrate how it can be utilized and to prove the viability of the complete system. The experiments verify that the autonomous search and rescue multicoper can contribute in a search operation using an observer to spot for objects.
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Soylemez, Emrah. "Gis-based Search Theory Application For Search And Rescue Planning." Master's thesis, METU, 2007. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12608362/index.pdf.
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Search and Rescue (SAR) operations aim at finding missing objects with minimum
time in a determined area. There are fundamentally two problems in these
operations. The first problem is assessing highly reliable probability distribution
maps, and the second is determining the search pattern that sweeps the area from
the air as fast as possible.
In this study, geographic information systems (GIS) and multi criteria decision
analysis (MCDA) are integrated and a new model is developed based upon Search
Theory in order to find the position of the missing object as quickly as possible
with optimum resource allocation. Developed model is coded as a search planning
tool for the use of search and rescue planners. Inputs of the model are last known
position of the missing object and related clues about its probable position.
In the developed model, firstly related layers are arranged according to their
priorities based on subjective expert opinion. Then a multi criteria decision method
is selected and each data layer is multiplied by a weight corresponding to search
expert&rsquo<br>s rank. Then a probability map is established according to the result of
MCDA methods. In the second phase, the most suitable search patterns used in
literature are applied based on established probability map. The developed model
is a new approach to shortening the time in SAR operations and finding the
suitable search pattern for the data of different crashes.
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Cavallin, Kristoffer, and Peter Svensson. "Semi-Autonomous,Teleoperated Search and Rescue Robot." Thesis, Umeå University, Department of Computing Science, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-31928.
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<p>The interest in robots in the urban search and rescue (USAR) field has increased the last two decades. The idea is to let robots move into places where human rescue workers cannot or, due to high personal risks, should not enter.In this thesis project, an application is constructed with the purpose of teleoperating a simple robot. This application contains a user interface that utilizes both autonomous and semi-autonomous functions, such as search, explore and point-and-go behaviours. The purpose of the application is to work with USAR principles in a refined and simplified environment, and thereby increase the understanding for these principles and how they interact with each other. Furthermore, the thesis project reviews the recent and the current status of robots in USAR applications and use of teleoperation and semi-autonomous robots in general. Some conclusions that are drawn towards the end of the thesis are that the use of robots, especially in USAR situations, will continue to increase. As robots and support technology both become more advanced and cheaper by the day, teleoperation and semi-autonomous robots will also be seen in more and more places.</p><p> </p>
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Mosesson, Yael, and Petra Nyqvist. "Tracking with search and rescue dog equipage." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Kommunikations- och transportsystem, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-119940.
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Sjöfartsverket ansvarar för insatser när människor är i, eller befaras vara i sjönöd. För att utveckla metoderna för efterforskning av försvunna människor i sjönöd har Sjöfartsverket tillsammans med Sjöräddningssällskapet, Svenska Brukshundklubben och Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och beredskap (MSB) startat ett projekt tillsammans med räddningshundar som specialutbildats för att agera i sjömiljö, så kallade sjöräddningshundekipage. Syftet har varit att genom intervjuer och observationer ta reda på vilka sökmetoder som används för eftersök av försvunna människor på land med räddningshundar för att sedan överföra sökmetoderna så att de kan användas till sjöss för eftersök med hjälp av sjöräddningshundar. Resultatet visar att det finns ett antal olika sökmetoder för efterforskning av försvunna personer på land och den metod som används vid ett eftersök bestäms utifrån ett antal faktorer såsom väder, vind, terräng och tidsfaktorn. De sökmetoder som används vid eftersök på land är bland annat närsök, frisök, slalomsök, z-sök, parallellsök och rutsök. Författarna har, för att besvara studiens syfte följt tre steg för att överföra sökmetoder från land till sjöss. Av det som framkommit i resultatet har en jämförelse gjorts mellan förutsättningarna för sök på land och till sjöss samt att en jämförelse gjorts mellan sökmetoderna, för att visa på skillnader mellan sökmetoderna på land och till sjöss. De metoder som föreslås att utvecklas är Z-sök, slalomsök och parallellsök.
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Mardell, James. "Assisting search and rescue through visual attention." Thesis, Imperial College London, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/24156.
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With the ubiquity of visual data being recorded, we now have the ability to view vast amounts of visual imagery. However, searching through imagery for an indeterminate target in tasks such as security baggage inspection, medical scan screening and Wilderness Search and Rescue (WiSAR), remains problematic for most people and cannot be automated. If the imagery was presented to account for the way in which humans cognitively process such visuals, then the success of these tasks might be improved. This thesis proposes and evaluates a series of presentation methods to manipulate imagery to seek this improvement. A series of user experience studies were conducted. Given the task of searching for inconspicuous 'lost' human beings in a WiSAR scenario, subjects observed multiple sequences of aerial photography embodied in six specially designed presentations. These presentations were designed following an analysis of existing visual attention literature. The first study to evaluate these methods compared the standard live (i.e. scrolling) view of the terrain to a static representation. This static portrayal of aerial search yielded an improved success rate for target location. The second method adapted the static representation, by segmenting the image into smaller tiles that were displayed for correspondingly shorter durations, while the third method enlarged the segmented tiles to fill the display. With increased segmentation, the ability for subjects to locate targets was broadly unaffected. The fourth study investigated two methods that use eye-tracking equipment to dynamically enhance the display. Contained within this thesis are the findings from these four studies, which include the analysis of each subject's performance, opinions and eye-movement behaviour. The inspiration for each presentation method was the development of a proposed model for visual search. Ultimately, the static method is revealed as the most effective for the chosen scenario of WiSAR.
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Beck, Zoltan. "Collaborative search and rescue by autonomous robots." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2016. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/411031/.
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In recent years, professional first responders have started to use novel technologies at the scene of disasters in order to save more lives. Increasingly, they use robots to search disaster sites. One of the most widely and successfully used robot platforms in the disaster response domain are unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). UAVs allow remote inspection and mapping. They are able to provide high resolution imagery and often need minimal infrastructure to fly. This allows settings where multiple UAVs are airborne accelerating the information gathering from the disaster site. However, current deployments use labour intensive, individually teleoperated UAVs. Given this, there is a drive toward using multiple robots operating with a certain level of autonomy, in order to decrease the operators' workload. One approach for utilising multiple robots in this way is semi-autonomous operation supervised by a small number of professionals; only requiring human experts for crucial decisions. Current commercial UAV platforms also allow the deployment of a diverse group of robots, allowing them to combine their individual capabilities to be more ecient. For example, xed-wing UAVs are capable of flying faster and carry larger payload, but when they do so, they should be deployed with higher safety measures (safety pilots are required for non-lightweight aircraft). On the other hand, small rotary-wing UAVs are more agile and can approach and provide imagery about objects on the ground. To this end, this thesis develops a number of new approaches for the collaboration of a heterogeneous group of robots in disaster response. More specifically, the problem of collaborative planning with robots operating in an uncertain workflow based setting is investigated by solving the search and rescue (SAR) collaboration problem. Of course, the problem complexity increases when collaborating with dierent robots. It is not different in this setting, the actions of dierent types of robots need to be planned with dependencies between their actions under uncertainty. To date, research on collaboration between multiple robots has typically focused on known settings, where the possible robot actions are dened as a set of tasks. However, in most real world settings, there is a signicant amount of uncertainty present. For ii example, information about a disaster site develops gradually during disaster relief, thus initially there is often very little certainty about the locations of people requiring assistance (e.g. damaged buildings, trapped victims, or supply shortages). Existing solutions that tackle collaboration in the face of uncertain information are typically limited to simple exploration or target search problems. Moreover, the use of generic temporal planners rapidly becomes intractable for such problems unless applied in a domain-specific manner. Finally, domain specific approaches rarely involve complex action relations, such as task dependencies where the actions of some robots are built on the actions of others. When they do so, decomposition techniques are applied to decrease the problem complexity, or simple heuristics are applied to enhance similar collaboration. Such approaches often lead to low quality solutions, because vital action dependencies across different roles are not taken into account during the optimisation. Against this background, we oer novel online planning approaches for heterogeneous multi-robot collaboration under uncertainty. First, we provide a negotiation-based bidirectional collaborative planning approach that exploits the potential in determinisation via hindsight optimisation (HOP) combined with long-term planning. Second, we extend this approach to create an anytime Monte Carlo tree search planner that also utilises HOP combined with long-term planning. In online planning settings, such as SAR, anytime planners are benecial to ensure the ability of providing a feasible plan within the given computational budget. Third, we construct a scenario close to physical deployment that allows us to show how our long-term collaborative planning outperforms the current state of the art path-planning approaches by 25 %. We conclude that long-term collaborative planning under uncertainty provides an improvement when planning in SAR settings. When combined, the contributions presented in this thesis represent an advancement in the state of the art in the eld of online planning under uncertainty. The approaches and methods presented can be applied in collaborative settings when uncertainty plays an important role for defining dependencies between partial planning problems.
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Hammerseth, Vegard B. "Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle In Search And Rescue." Thesis, Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet, Institutt for teknisk kybernetikk, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:no:ntnu:diva-22880.
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This report presents a way of using autonomous drones to enhance search and rescue operations and takes the first steps in bringing the system to life. By using autonomous drones, less experience is required by the rescue personnel and drone specialists become excessive in this matter. Due to autonomy a drone can operate outside a valid radio link. Hence, when signal is lost, the craft can continue to search, buffer the information and send it when the link becomes active. By creating affordable drones the threshold decreases for deploying a unit in bad weather or other missions where the feedback is more important than drone return.Because the drones must sweep a large area, an aeroplane is the best suitable airframe. To generate less drag and increase stability; long, slender and thin-as-possible wings are recommended. To achieve aerodynamic stability, non-swept wings and a small positive dihedral angle is also advised. The wings should be attached on top of a slender and small-as-possible fuselage. However, due to the difficulties in landing and vulnerabilities related to this, a flying wing which obey the same design requirements, may be a better choice. A prototype for a flying wing made in expanded polypropylene was put together and tested. It proved to be resilient, able to withstand significant abuse, quickly recover to its former structure and be repaired in minutes. Highly convenient for various landing areas.An attitude and heading reference system (AHRS) is required to tell which orientation a vehicle may have. An affordable version has been realised by using micro electro mechanical sensors and a micro controller. Since the vehicle must orient itself within a search area, a NAVSTAR Global Positioning System (GPS) and way-point approach were drones are pre-programmed to follow a path has been developed together with a complete flight system.The drones search path must be programmed automatically from the given search area by the rescue personnel. This requires software and active communication link between a ground station and drones. An intuitive graphical user interface has been developed and verified to work by marking an area in the program and send coordinates over a commercial communication link to a prototype drone.A thermal imaging camera can be used to detect humans. It will make mammals stand out in an environment when viewed in the produced image (thermogram). Together with an arbitrarily threshold limit, the operators can be notified with coordinates when the threshold is reached. An experiment was carried out by placing a human at known coordinates. A drone with self position equipment was sent over the human repeatedly, automatically locating the person and reporting its location. It was concluded that the drone would be within 20 meters radius of the person.The generality and affordability of the airframe, AHRS and vision system can be useful for the university in the years ahead and the threshold for realising applications which uses any of these systems has therefore been reduced. A drone based system like this can enhance search and rescue and assist the majority by saving time, money and lives.
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Ryu, Kun Jin. "Autonomous Robotic Strategies for Urban Search and Rescue." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/19194.
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This dissertation proposes autonomous robotic strategies for urban search and rescue (USAR) which are map-based semi-autonomous robot navigation and fully-autonomous robotic search, tracking, localization and mapping (STLAM) using a team of robots. Since the prerequisite for these solutions is accurate robot localization in the environment, this dissertation first presents a novel grid-based scan-to-map matching technique for accurate simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). At every acquisition of a new scan and estimation of the robot pose, the proposed technique corrects the estimation error by matching the new scan to the globally defined grid map. To improve the accuracy of the correction, each grid cell of the map is represented by multiple normal distributions (NDs). The new scan to be matched to the map is also represented by NDs, which achieves the scan-to-map matching by the ND-to-ND matching. In the map-based semi-autonomous robot navigation strategy, a robot placed in an environment creates the map of the environment and sends it to the human operator at a distant location. The human operator then makes decisions based on the map and controls the robot via tele-operation. In case of communication loss, the robot semi-autonomously returns to the home position by inversely tracking its trajectory with additional optimal path planning. In the fully-autonomous robotic solution to USAR, multiple robots communicate one another while operating together as a team. The base station collects information from each robot and assigns tasks to the robots. Unlike the semi-autonomous strategy there is no control from the human operator. To further enhance the<br />efficiency of their cooperation each member of the team specifically works on its own task.<br />A series of numerical and experimental studies were conducted to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed solutions to USAR scenarios. The effectiveness of the scan-to-map matching with the multi-ND representation was confirmed by analyzing the error accumulation and by comparing with the single-ND representation. The applicability of the scan-to-map matching to the real SLAM problem was also verified in three different real environments. The results of the map-based semi-autonomous robot navigation showed the effectiveness of the approach as an immediately usable solution to USAR. The effectiveness of the proposed fully- autonomous solution was first confirmed by two real robots in a real environment. The cooperative performance of the strategy was further investigated using the developed platform- and hardware-in-the-loop simulator. The results showed significant potential as the future solution to USAR.<br>Ph. D.
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Forsslund, Patrik, and Simon Monié. "MULTI-DRONE COLLABORATION FOR SEARCH AND RESCUE MISSIONS." Thesis, Mälardalens högskola, Akademin för innovation, design och teknik, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-54439.
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Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), also called drones, are used for Search And Rescue (SAR) missions, mainly in the form of a pilot manoeuvring a single drone. However, the increase in labour to cover larger areas quickly would result in a very high cost and time spent per rescue operation. Therefore, there is a need for an easy to use, low-cost, and highly autonomous swarm of drones for SAR missions where the detection and rescue times are kept to a minimum. In this thesis, a Subsumption-based architecture is proposed, which combines multiple behaviours to create more complex behaviours. An investigation of (1) what are the critical aspects of controlling a swarm of drones, (2) how can a combination of different behavioural algorithms increase the performance of a swarm of drones, and (3) what benchmarks are necessary when evaluating the fitness of the behavioural algorithms. The proposed architecture was simulated in AirSim using the SimpleFlight flight controller through experiments that evaluated the individual layers and missions that simulated real-life scenarios. The results validate the modularity and reliability of the architecture, where the architecture has the potential for improvements in future iterations. For the search area of 400×400meters, the swarm consistently produced an average area coverage of at least 99.917% and found all the missing people in all missions, with the slowest average being 563 seconds. Compared to related work, the result produced similar or better times when scaled to the same proportions and higher area coverage. As comparisons of results in SAR missions can be difficult, the introduction of Active time can serve as a benchmark for others in future swarm performance measurements.
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Zhuang, Peng Shang Yi. "Wireless sensor network aided search and rescue in trails." Diss., Columbia, Mo. : University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10355/4626.
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Thesis (M.S.) University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006.<br>The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on August 29, 2007) Includes bibliographical references.
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Andersen, Håvard Lægreid. "Path Planning for Search and Rescue Mission using Multicopters." Thesis, Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet, Institutt for teknisk kybernetikk, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:no:ntnu:diva-25926.
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This thesis considers path planning for a low-cost multicopter used in the searchpart of a search and rescue mission. Search patterns or trajectories are consideredand evaluated through simulations in MATLAB. How to place the onboard camerain order to cover as much area as possible and which altitude that gives the mostarea coverage without making the subjects too small to detect is discussed.The proposed search patterns are implemented in the existing software structureused in this project. The implementation is tested using a ArduPilot software inthe loop simulator, and by flight tests using a hexacopter.
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Redfern, Anthony. "Radar simulator training for effective maritime search and rescue." Thesis, University of Plymouth, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/2213.
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The main effort in locating and rescuing survivors of a maritime incident is borne by merchant shipping. This research shows that search and rescue is a task that will face most seafarers, but as they generally lack the necessary levels of skill and knowledge required the task will often be poorly performed. A remedy to this unsatisfactory situation lies in proper training and guidance for ships' officers. This thesis evaluates, using illuminative techniques, the first simulator course devised to provide such training. The evaluation will be of particular use to others called upon to provide similar training. It also shows a requirement for the adoption of improved procedures in merchant ship searches, makes relevant recommendations, and identifies areas for further research. More significantly the study has allowed, through simulation, an opportunity unparalleled in the real situation to assess the guidance contained in the Merchant Ship Search and Rescue Manual (MERSAR). This International Maritime Organization manual is the primary aid available to seafarers facing search and rescue responsibilities. The assessment concludes there is scope for extensive amendment to MERSAR amounting to overall rather than piecemeal revision. Positive recommendations are made, particularly in the areas of communications, control and co-ordination. It is anticipated that this original research will have an important role to play in MERSAR's revision, and through this improve the effectiveness of maritime search and rescue.
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Schurr, Naomi D. (Naomi Danika). "Inferring beliefs for search and rescue from natural language." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/120439.
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Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2018.<br>Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.<br>Includes bibliographical references (pages 97-101).<br>A learned natural language robotic interface can allow a human operator to intuitively communicate instructions to a robot. A number of models, including probabilistic grounding graphs, have been used to ground natural language input to the real-world tasks a robot must perform. In this thesis, I provide two extensions to existing work in grounding natural language instructions. First, I apply an existing probabilistic grounding graph model in the context of outdoor search and rescue, introducing a new set of groundings to allow a continuous cost map to be inferred from the natural language. Second, I incorporate pool-based active learning into the training of the probabilistic grounding graph model, which shows promise for reducing the number of labeled examples needed to train the model.<br>by Naomi D. Schurr.<br>S.M.
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Meredith, Andre Paul. "An unmanned aircraft system for maritime search and rescue." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/6720.
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Thesis (MScEng (Electrical and Electronic Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2011.<br>ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Search and Rescue is an essential service provided by States and Militaries to
search for, locate and rescue survivors of accidents and incidents. Civil Search and
Rescue utilizes a system of well-trained professionals or volunteers, an effective
Search and Rescue organization, supported by industry and other providers of
infrastructure and assets. The service is rendered to save the lives of civilian
individuals in imminent danger of losing their lives. Military (Combat) Search and
Rescue is provided by militaries to save the lives of military practitioners in a similar
predicament. In addition, Search and Rescue is performed over land and over the
sea.
All forms of Search and Rescue rely on capable, specialized assets for efficiency en
affectivity. Assets are specified and chosen on the grounds of various factors,
amongst others operating environment, operational profile, performance and special
abilities.
This thesis has determined the need for a Search and Rescue asset, capable of
performing effective and efficient Search and Rescue over the entire national
maritime Search and Rescue Region, up to the Region extremities. An analysis was
performed to prove this deficit, and quantify the key performance and special
equipment requirements for such an asset. An analysis was also performed which
proves that an Unmanned Aircraft System should be an ideal choice to meet this
need. Finally, an Unmanned Aircraft System concept was specified that could
potentially meet this need.<br>AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Soek en Redding is ‘n essentiële diens wat deur State en militêre organisasies
gebied word om oorlewendes van ongelukke en insidente te soek, op te spoor en na
veiligheid te bring. Siviele Soek en Redding maak gebruik van ‘n stelsel van goedopgeleide
professionele persone, sowel as vrywilligers, asook ‘n effektiewe Soek en
Reddingsorganisasie, ondersteun deur die industrie en ander voorsieners van
infrastruktuur en toerusting. Derglike dienste word daargestel om die lewens van
siviele persone, wie se lewens in gevaar is, te red. Militêre Soek en Redding word
deur militêre organisasies daargetel om die lewens van militêre persone, wie in
gevaar is, te red. Soek en Redding word oor land sowel as oor die see uitgevoer.
Alle vorms van Soek en Redding maak staat op die beskikbaarheid van
gespesialiseerde toerusting met gespesialiseerde gebruiksaanwending, vir
maksimale effektiwiteit en doeltreffendheid. Toerusting word gekies op grond van
verskeie faktore, onder meer die gebruiksomgewing, operasionele profiele, verlangde
prestasie en spesiale vermoëns.
Hierdie tesis het die behoefte aan ‘n gespesialiseerde Soek en Redding platform, wat
die vermoë het om effektiewe en doeltreffende Soek en Redding uit te voer oor die
hele nationale Soek en Redding Gebied, tot en met die ekstreme daarvan, vasgestel.
‘n Analise is uitgevoer om hierdie tekortkoming uit te wys, asook om die sleutel
prestasie- en gespesialiseerde toerustingbehoeftes vir so ‘n platform te kwantifiseer.
‘n Verdere analise is uitgevoer om te bewys dat ‘n Onbemande Vliegtuig die beste
opsie sou wees vir ‘n platform om aan hierdie behoeftes te voldoen. Ten slotte is ‘n
konsep vir ‘n Onbemande Vliegtuig Stelsel voorgetsel wat potensieël hierdie
behoefte sou kon vervul.
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Ambrose-Thurman, Andrew Michael Luke. "Autonomous, collaborative, unmanned aerial vehicles for search and rescue." Thesis, Durham University, 2014. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/10652/.
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Search and Rescue is a vitally important subject, and one which can be improved through the use of modern technology. This work presents a number of advances aimed towards the creation of a swarm of autonomous, collaborative, unmanned aerial vehicles for land-based search and rescue. The main advances are the development of a diffusion based search strategy for route planning, research into GPS (including the Durham Tracker Project and statistical research into altitude errors), and the creation of a relative positioning system (including discussion of the errors caused by fast-moving units). Overviews are also given of the current state of research into both UAVs and Search and Rescue.
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Lin, Rongbin Lanny. "UAV intelligent path planning for wilderness search and rescue /." Diss., CLICK HERE for online access, 2009. http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/ETD/image/etd2906.pdf.
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Lin, Rongbin. "UAV Intelligent Path Planning for Wilderness Search and Rescue." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2009. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/1759.
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In Wilderness Search and Rescue (WiSAR), the incident commander (IC) creates a probability distribution map of the likely location of the missing person. This map is important because it guides the IC in allocating search resources and coordinating efforts, but it often depends almost exclusively on prior experience and subjective judgment. We propose a Bayesian model that utilizes publicly available terrain features data to help model lost-person behaviors. This approach enables domain experts to encode uncertainty in their prior estimations and also make it possible to incorporate human-behavior data collected in the form of posterior distributions, which are used to build a first-order Markov transition matrix for generating a temporal, posterior predictive probability distribution map. The map can work as a base to be augmented by search and rescue workers to incorporate additional information. Using a Bayes Chi-squared test for goodness-of-fit, we show that the model fits a synthetic dataset well. This model also serves as a foundation of a larger framework that allows for easy expansion to incorporate additional factors such as season and weather conditions that affect the lost-person's behaviors. Once a probability distribution map is in place, areas with higher probabilities are searched first in order to find the missing person in the shortest expected time. When using a Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to support search, the onboard video camera should cover as much of the important areas as possible within a set time. We explore several algorithms (with and without set destination) and describe some novel techniques in solving this path-planning problem and compare their performances against typical WiSAR scenarios. This problem is NP-hard, but our algorithms yield high quality solutions that approximate the optimal solution, making efficient use of the limited UAV flying time. The capability of planning a path with a set destination also enables the UAV operator to plan a path strategically while letting the UAV plan the path locally.
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Mort, Alasdair. "Novel electronic physiologic monitor potential in remote and rural search and rescue." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2010. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=158403.
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This thesis evaluates novel electronic physiologic monitor potential in remote and rural search and rescue. Casualties are often located a considerable distance away from definitive care. Their rescue involves a variety of groups, including volunteer rescue teams. Rescuers manage a wide range of medical problems, from minor issues to more serious, life-threatening conditions. However, casualty monitoring is restricted by steep terrain and extreme environmental conditions. Evidence indicated that novel electronic physiologic monitors were in development. Some were lightweight and wireless – it was hypothesised that such technology could facilitate health monitoring, conferring benefits to casualties and their carers. Novel physiologic monitor potential was explored using a multi-method approach, involving four methodologically distinct pieces of research. This included a reverseengineering approach to define the rescue context. A thematic review of remote and rural casualty rescues identified a potential worldwide demand for a novel monitor, although only a small proportion of casualties had severe injury. A longitudinal analysis of UK remote and rural casualties confirmed a consistent mountain rescue casualty demand for monitoring. Injury was more frequent than illness and a majority of injury involved suspected fracture to the lower extremity. A qualitative study identified evidence of support for novel monitors amongst rescuer groups. However, some felt that the environment and the variety of rescuer first-aid and medical training could negate monitor potential. A laboratory-function study evaluated the performance of an example of a novel monitor under simulated rescue conditions. There was little effect of several layers of clothing and a mountain rescue casualty bag on data accuracy. Taking all the evidence gathered into consideration, it was concluded that novel electronic physiologic monitors did have potential in remote and rural search and rescue. A concept design for a rescue-specific physiologic monitor was proposed, including software, hardware and architecture for future use.
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Topal, Sebahattin. "Multi-robot Coordination Control Methodology For Search And Rescue Operations." Phd thesis, METU, 2011. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12613841/index.pdf.
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This dissertation presents a novel multi-robot coordination control algorithm for search
and rescue (SAR) operations. Continuous and rapid coverage of the unstructured and
complex disaster areas in search of possible buried survivors is a time critical operation
where prior information about the environment is either not available or very
limited. Human navigation of such areas is definitely dangerous due to the nature
of the debris. Hence, exploration of unknown disaster environments with a team of
robots is gaining importance day by day to increase the efficiency of SAR operations.
Localization of possible survivors necessitates uninterrupted navigation of robotic
aiding devices within the rubbles without getting trapped into dead ends. In this
work, a novel goal oriented prioritized exploration and map merging methodologies
are proposed to generate efficient multi-robot coordination control strategy. These
two methodologies are merged to make the proposed methodology more realistic for
real world applications.
Prioritized exploration of an environment is the first important task of the efficient coordination control algorithm for multi-robots. A goal oriented and prioritized exploration
approach based on a percolation model for victim search operation in unknown
environments is presented in this work. The percolation model is used to describe
the behavior of liquid in random media. In our approach robots start prioritized exploration
beginning from regions of the highest likelihood of finding victims using
percolation model inspired controller.
A novel map merging algorithm is presented to increase the performance of the SAR
operation in the sense of time and energy. The problem of merging partial occupancy
grid environment maps which are extracted independently by individual robot units
during search and rescue (SAR) operations is solved for complex disaster environments.
Moreover, these maps are combined using intensity and area based features
without knowing the initial position and orientation of the robots. The proposed approach
handles the limitation of existing works in the literature such as<br>limited overlapped
area between partial maps of robots is sufficient for good merging performance
and unstructured partial environment maps can be merged efficiently. These abilities
allow multi-robot teams to efficiently generate the occupancy grid map of catastrophe
areas and localize buried victim in the debris efficiently.
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Shams, Farhad. "Apparatus and System For Search and Rescue Operations At Sea." Thesis, KTH, Skolan för informations- och kommunikationsteknik (ICT), 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-37211.
Full textAbstract:
The aim of this thesis is to design and implement of an independent rescue system that includes a transmitter part which can be embedded in the life jacket of boat passengers and a receiver part. The system includes GPS, Radio besides a 3-axis magnetometer in order to set the heading of receiver part to transmitter part. The overall system has been designed with some feasible tests in order to support proposed system in completeness and effectiveness.
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Ebrahimi-Oskoei, Ehsan. "Swarm of UAVs: Search & Rescue Operationin Chaotic Ship Wakes." Thesis, KTH, Flygdynamik, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-159282.
Full textAbstract:
A person falling of a ship can be difficult to locate since the wake behind the ship forms achaotic field, making it extremely difficult to predict the location of the victim even if thetime when they fell overboard is known. Survivability for humans immersed at sea is verydependent on the time spent in the water, and varies significantly with sea temperature; thismakes it imperative that the victim is retrieved rapidly. Our current research is aimed atreducing this time using several UAV's searching the ships wake simultaneously, as a swarm.Since the wake is chaotic, a simulation was developed to model different random motions of avictim based on a chaotic equation. Our current research is making use of an establishedsimulator environment and developing it further to investigate how different platforms mayaffect rescue time, varying on the size of the ship, the weather conditions and whether thesearch is operated during day or night. Two different search strategies were implemented inthe developed simulator; these are Expanding Square search and Parallel search. An overallconclusion based on the results obtained is that the expanding square search tends to be amore rigid and reliable search strategy. Also the results show that for any scenario, the soughtperson is detected within minutes.
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Guirguis, Maria (Maria A. ). "Robot search and rescue : a comparison of 3D mapping techniques." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/61000.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2010.<br>This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.<br>Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.<br>Includes bibliographical references (p. 25-26).<br>Modern robots are involved in sophisticated manipulations of their environment, and for that they need extensive knowledge of their surroundings. 3D mapping allows for the creation of such complex maps, and here we explore some of the options available for the creation of 3D maps. We consider using 2D and 3D sensors to see how helpful the extra information is.<br>by Maria Guirguis.<br>M.Eng.
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Saeedi, P. "Self-organised multi agent system for search and rescue operations." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2010. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/147198/.
Full textAbstract:
Autonomous multi-agent systems perform inadequately in time critical missions, while they tend to explore exhaustively each location of the field in one phase with out selecting the pertinent strategy. This research aims to solve this problem by introducing a hierarchy of exploration strategies. Agents explore an unknown search terrain with complex topology in multiple predefined stages by performing pertinent strategies depending on their previous observations. Exploration inside unknown, cluttered, and confined environments is one of the main challenges for search and rescue robots inside collapsed buildings. In this regard we introduce our novel exploration algorithm for multi–agent system, that is able to perform a fast, fair, and thorough search as well as solving the multi–agent traffic congestion. Our simulations have been performed on different test environments in which the complexity of the search field has been defined by fractal dimension of Brownian movements. The exploration stages are depicted as defined arenas of National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST). NIST introduced three scenarios of progressive difficulty: yellow, orange, and red. The main concentration of this research is on the red arena with the least structure and most challenging parts to robot nimbleness.
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Patnayak, Chinmaya. "Distributed Intelligence for Multi-Agent Systems in Search and Rescue." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/100796.
Full textAbstract:
Unfavorable environmental and (or) human displacement may engender the need for Search
and Rescue (SAR). Challenges such as inaccessibility, large search areas, and heavy reliance
on available responder count, limited equipment and training makes SAR a challenging
problem. Additionally, SAR operations also pose significant risk to involved responders.
This opens a remarkable opportunity for robotic systems to assist and augment human
understanding of the harsh environments. A large body of work exists on the introduction
of ground and aerial robots in visual and temporal inspection of search areas with varying
levels of autonomy. Unfortunately, limited autonomy is the norm in such systems, due to
the limitations presented by on-board UAV resources and networking capabilities.
In this work we propose a new multi-agent approach to SAR and introduce a wearable
compute cluster in the form factor of a backpack. The backpack allows offloading compute
intensive tasks such as Lost Person Behavior Modelling, Path Planning and Deep Neural
Network based computer vision applications away from the UAVs and offers significantly
high performance computers to execute them. The backpack also provides for a strong
networking backbone and task orchestrators which allow for enhanced coordination and
resource sharing among all the agents in the system. On the basis of our benchmarking
experiments, we observe that the backpack can significantly boost capabilities and success
in modern SAR responses.<br>Master of Science<br>Unfavorable environmental and (or) human displacement may engender the need for Search
and Rescue (SAR). Challenges such as inaccessibility, large search areas, and heavy reliance
on available responder count, limited equipment and training makes SAR a challenging
problem. Additionally, SAR operations also pose significant risk to involved responders.
This opens a remarkable opportunity for robotic systems to assist and augment human
understanding of the harsh environments. A large body of work exists on the introduction
of ground and aerial robots in visual and temporal inspection of search areas with varying
levels of autonomy. Unfortunately, limited autonomy is the norm in such systems, due to
the limitations presented by on-board UAV resources and networking capabilities.
In this work we propose a new multi-agent approach to SAR and introduce a wearable
compute cluster in the form factor of a backpack. The backpack allows offloading compute
intensive tasks such as Lost Person Behavior Modelling, Path Planning and Deep Neural
Network based computer vision applications away from the UAVs and offers significantly
high performance computers to execute them. The backpack also provides for a strong
networking backbone and task orchestrators which allow for enhanced coordination and
resource sharing among all the agents in the system. On the basis of our benchmarking
experiments, we observe that the backpack can significantly boost capabilities and success
in modern SAR responses.
26
Akdemir, Gümüş Derya Keçeci Emin Faruk. "Design of a rescue robot for search and mapping operation/." [s.l.]: [s.n.], 2006. http://library.iyte.edu.tr/tezlerengelli/master/makinamuh/T000546.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (Master)--İzmir Institute of Technology, İzmir, 2006.<br>Keywords: Robot design, mechanical applications, rescue, mapping, search robot, rescue robot. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-66).
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Bleakney, Eric M. "Finding the "sweet spot" for catastrophic incident search and rescue." Thesis, Monterey, California : Naval Postgraduate School, 2009. http://edocs.nps.edu/npspubs/scholarly/theses/2009/Sep/09Sep%5FBleakney.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (M.S. in Security Studies (Homeland Security and Defense))--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2009.<br>Thesis Advisor(s): Supinski, Stan. "September 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on November 05, 2009. Author(s) subject terms: Search and Rescue, Catastrophic Incident, Catastrophic Planning, National Search and Rescue Advisory Committee, Integrated Planning, NIFC, National Interagency Fire Center, MAC, National Multiagency Coordination Center, MACC, Multiagency Communications Center, Interagency Coordination, sweet spot, USNORTHCOM, United States Northern Command, CI SAR, Catastrophic Incident Search and Rescue, Air Force Rescue Coordination Center, Joint Personnel Recovery Center, Personnel Recovery Includes bibliographical references (p. 134143 Also available in print.
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Mirhassani, Seyedmohsen <1989>. "A Ground Robot for Search And Rescue in Hostile Environment." Doctoral thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2018. http://amsdottorato.unibo.it/8416/7/Mirhassani_final.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
The recent sheer developments in the field of robotics has encouraged the researcher to consider the robots assisting human in different aspects of life. In this context, search and rescue is a very interesting ambient where the capabilities offered by the robots can be used to not only augment the quality of service but also impose lower risk to the human members of the rescue team. To this purpose, project SHERPA has been defined to investigate an intelligent heterogeneous robotic team in a search and rescue mission.
The robotic team includes flying robots such as fixed wing and quad copters for the purpose of patrolling and surveillance and a ground rover that is mainly considered to provide a mobile power replenishment service for the quadrotors.
Navigation of the ground rover on the unstructured outdoor environment defined by the SHERPA is of the main focuses of this thesis. Due to roughness of the terrain, there are a lot of issues on the way of a successful localization. Moreover, the planning has to be compatible with the robot and environment constraints to avoid imposing a risk of mechanical damage to the system.
To accomplish the battery exchange operation, the rover is equipped with two auxiliary devices namely "Sherpa box" and "Sherpa robotic arm". In this thesis, firstly, designs of the two devices are introduced to the reader in details. Secondly, their integration with the ground rover will be covered.
Finally two important benchmarks of the SHERPA project, namely "human leashing" and "battery exchange operation", will be addressed.
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Roscheck, Michael Thomas. "Detection Likelihood Maps for Wilderness Search and Rescue: Assisting Search by Utilizing Searcher GPS Track Logs." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2012. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/3312.
Full textAbstract:
Every year there are numerous cases of individuals becoming lost in remote wilderness environments. Principles of search theory have become a foundation for developing more efficient and successful search and rescue methods. Measurements can be taken that describe how easily a search object is to detect. These estimates allow the calculation of the probability of detection—the probability that an object would have been detected if in the area. This value only provides information about the search area as a whole; it does not provide details about which portions were searched more thoroughly than others. Ground searchers often carry portable GPS devices and their resulting GPS track logs have recently been used to fill in part of this knowledge gap. We created a system that provides a detection likelihood map that estimates the probability that each point in a search area was seen well enough to detect the search object if it was there. This map will be used to aid ground searchers as they search an assigned area, providing real time feedback of what has been "seen." The maps will also assist incident commanders as they assess previous searches and plan future ones by providing more detail than is available by viewing GPS track logs.
30
Hunt, Alexander. "A Biologically Inspired Robot for Assistance in Urban Search and Rescue." Cleveland, Ohio : Case Western Reserve University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1270137669.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (Master of Sciences (Engineering))--Case Western Reserve University, 2010<br>Department of EMC - Mechanical Engineering Title from PDF (viewed on 2010-05-25) Includes abstract Includes bibliographical references and appendices Available online via the OhioLINK ETD Center
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Castle, Timothy S. "Coordinated inland area Search and Rescue (SAR) planning and execution tool." Thesis, Monterey, Calif. : Springfield, Va. : Naval Postgraduate School ; Available from National Technical Information Service, 1998. http://handle.dtic.mil/100.2/ADA355989.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (M.S. in Operations Research) Naval Postgraduate School, September 1998.<br>"September 1998." Thesis advisor(s): Gordon H. Bradley, Alan R. Washburn. Includes bibliographical references (p. 81-82). Also available online.
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Scone, Sion. "Opportunistic communication schemes for unmanned vehicles in urban search and rescue." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2010. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/7269.
Full textAbstract:
In urban search and rescue (USAR) operations, there is a considerable amount of danger faced by rescuers. The use of mobile robots can alleviate this issue. Coordinating the search effort is made more difficult by the communication issues typically faced in these environments, such that communication is often restricted. With small numbers of robots, it is necessary to break communication links in order to explore the entire environment. The robots can be viewed as a broken ad hoc network, relying on opportunistic contact in order to share data. In order to minimise overheads when exchanging data, a novel algorithm for data exchange has been created which maintains the propagation speed of flooding while reducing overheads. Since the rescue workers outside of the structure need to know the location of any victims, the task of finding their locations is two parted: 1) to locate the victims (Search Time), and 2) to get this data outside the structure (Delay Time). Communication with the outside is assumed to be performed by a static robot designated as the Command Station. Since it is unlikely that there will be sufficient robots to provide full communications coverage of the area, robots that discover victims are faced with the difficult decision of whether they should continue searching or return with the victim data. We investigate a variety of search techniques and see how the application of biological foraging models can help to streamline the search process, while we have also implemented an opportunistic network to ensure that data are shared whenever robots come within line of sight of each other or the Command Station. We examine this trade-off between performing a search and communicating the results.
33
Giamou, Matthew Peter. "Place recognition for GNSS-denied autonomous multi-robot search and rescue." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112422.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2017.<br>Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.<br>Includes bibliographical references (pages 77-85).<br>Teams of agile unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) possess great potential for search and rescue missions requiring a rapid response over a large region of interest. With proper coordination, these robotic vehicles can leverage affordable hardware to efficiently search a remote region or disaster site for lost or injured people. However, effective search coordination requires that the robots successfully fuse information from their environment into an accurate and consistent localization and mapping scheme in order to ensure the entire region of interest is explored. This requires that the robots communicate observations of their environment or other robots to produce inter-robot trajectory and map constraints. The difficulty of this task is exacerbated in areas without Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) coverage, as absolute pose measurements are unavailable. This thesis explores solutions to the place recognition problem for UAVs under a dense forest canopy. The perception and communication challenges in a forest environment are explored for a multi-UAV system. A survey of existing place-recognition and multi-agent simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) systems is conducted and several candidate approaches are discussed, and a multi-agent pose-SLAM formulation is introduced as a practical framework. A state-of-the-art laser-based place recognition system is implemented and augmented with a Dirichlet process means (DP-means) clustering for stable feature selection. Finally, recent results describing some graph theoretic properties of SLAM problems are used in a resource-constrained SLAM framework. Experimental data collected from Middlesex Fells Reservation is used to validate the algorithms presented.<br>by Matthew Peter Giamou.<br>S.M.
34
Gabrecht, Katharina M. "Human factors of semi-autonomous robots for urban search and rescue." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2016. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/35458/.
Full textAbstract:
During major disasters or other emergencies, Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams are responsible for extricating casualties safely from collapsed urban structures. The rescue work is dangerous due to possible further collapse, fire, dust or electricity hazards. Sometimes the necessary precautions and checks can last several hours before rescuers are safe to start the search for survivors. Remote controlled rescue robots provide the opportunity to support human rescuers to search the site for trapped casualties while they remain in a safe place. The research reported in this thesis aimed to understand how robot behaviour and interface design can be applied to utilise the benefits of robot autonomy and how to inform future human-robot collaborative systems. The data was analysed in the context of USAR missions when using semi-autonomous remote controlled robot systems. The research focussed on the influence of robot feedback, robot reliability, task complexity, and transparency. The influence of these factors on trust, workload, and performance was examined. The overall goal of the research was to make the life of rescuers safer and enhance their performance to help others in distress. Data obtained from the studies conducted for this thesis showed that semi-autonomous robot reliability is still the most dominant factor influencing trust, workload, and team performance. A robot with explanatory feedback was perceived as more competent, more efficient and less malfunctioning. The explanatory feedback was perceived as a clearer type of communication compared to concise robot feedback. Higher levels of robot transparency were perceived as more trustworthy. However, single items on the trust questionnaire were manipulated and further investigation is necessary. However, neither explanatory feedback from the robot nor robot transparency, increased team performance or mediated workload levels. Task complexity mainly influenced human-robot team performance and the participants’ control allocation strategy. Participants allowed the robot to find more targets and missed more robot errors in the high complexity conditions compared to the low task complexity conditions. Participants found more targets manually in the low complexity tasks. In addition, the research showed that recording the observed robot performance (the performance of the robot that was witnessed by the participant) can help to identify the cause of contradicting results: participants might not have noticed some of the robots mistakes and therefore they were not able to distinguish between the robot reliability levels. Furthermore, the research provided a foundation of knowledge regarding the real world application of USAR in the United Kingdom. This included collecting knowledge via an autoethnographic approach about working processes, command structures, currently used technical equipment, and attitudes of rescuers towards robots. Also, recommendations about robot behaviour and interface design were collected throughout the research. However, recommendations made in the thesis include consideration of the overall outcome (mission performance) and the perceived usefulness of the system in order to support the uptake of the technology in real world applications. In addition, autonomous features might not be appropriate in all USAR applications. When semi-autonomous robot trials were compared to entirely manual operation, only the robot with an average of 97% reliability significantly increased the team performance and reduced the time needed to complete the USAR scenario compared to the manually operated robot. Unfortunately, such high robot success levels do not exist to date. This research has contributed to our understanding of the factors influencing human-robot collaboration in USAR operations, and provided guidance for the next generation of autonomous robots.
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Pettersson, Emil. "Design of a drone system for maritime search and rescue missions." Thesis, KTH, Flygdynamik, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-290180.
Full textAbstract:
The work summarized in this report aims to investigate how a drone airplane design can be optimized to create a safer and more efficient sea rescue by providing staff with an early picture, performing search missions and aiding communication through visual contact. A flying wing is in theory one of the most efficient designs for a fixed wing aircraft, at the same time as it also offers high structural efficiency for its given size. In this report, an overview of aerodynamics, stability and flying quality for a flying wing is discussed and analysed. XFLR5 was used for this project, and a comparison between the analytical results and wind tunnel test data for a prototype was conducted. A strong correlation was found between the theoretical analyses and the wind tunnel data. A simple control solution using only one set of elevons has been proposed and simulated, resulting in Level 1 dynamic stability for all modes except Dutch-roll (where the drone’s damping is 𝜁𝑑𝑟=0.07 and the requirement for Level 1 is 𝜁𝑑𝑟=0.08). For the range of angle of attack used, the autopilot system will have to trim the drone in flight to achieve stability. As the drone only has one set of control surfaces there will be a loss of efficiency in this scenario, meaning that 𝐶𝐿/𝐶𝐷 = 15.7 for loiter speed of 15 𝑚/𝑠 and 7.9 for full speed at 35 𝑚/𝑠. In regular flight, with a total mass <1 𝑘𝑔, the drone is able to fly at full speed for 214 𝑘𝑚 or loiter for 6.3 ℎ with a battery package of 130 𝑊ℎ. As such, the objective of this project was achieved, and the proposed design met the given requirements.<br>betet som sammanfattas i denna rapport syftar till att undersöka huruvida ett drönar-flygplan bäst kan utformas för att skapa en säkrare och effektivare sjöräddning genom att ge räddningspersonalen en tidig överblick, utföra sökuppdrag och bistå till kommunikation genom visuell kontakt. En flygande vinge är i teorin en av de mest effektiva konstruktionerna för ett flygplan, likaså erbjuder den en hög strukturell effektivitet för en given storlek. I denna rapport diskuteras och genomförs en översikt över aerodynamik, stabilitet och flygkvalitet hos en flygande vinge. XFLR5 användes för detta projekt, och en jämförelse mellan analysresultaten och ett vindtunneltest med en prototyp genomfördes. I allmänhet är överenskommelsen mellan de teoretiska analyserna och vindtunneldatan god. En enkel lösning som enbart består av en uppsättning kontrollytor har föreslagits och simulerats, vilket resulterar i en Nivå 1 dynamisk stabilitet för alla lägen utom Dutch-roll, där drönarens dämpning är 𝜁𝑑𝑟 = 0.07 och kravet för Nivå 1 är 𝜁𝑑𝑟 = 0.08. Autopilotsystemet behöver trimma drönaren under flygning för att uppnå nödvändig stabilitet för det spann av attackvinklar som används, med endast en uppsättning kontrollytor, vilket minskar effektiviteten för BWB-drönaren till 𝐶𝐿/𝐶𝐷=15.7 för cirkuleringshastigheten på 15 𝑚/𝑠 och 7.9 för full hastighet vid 35 𝑚/𝑠. Drönaren kan flyga i full hastighet i 214 𝑘𝑚 eller cirkulera runt olycksplatsen under 6.3 timmar med ett batteripaket på 130 𝑊ℎ, med en vikt som är lägre än 1 𝑘𝑔. Målen med detta projekt uppnåddes och drönaren utformades enligt kraven.
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Thornton, Daniel Richard. "Unusual-Object Detection in Color Video for Wilderness Search and Rescue." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2010. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2452.
Full textAbstract:
Aircraft-mounted cameras have potential to greatly increase the effectiveness of wilderness search and rescue efforts by collecting photographs or video of the search area. The more data that is collected, the more difficult it becomes to process it by visual inspection alone. This work presents a method for automatically detecting unusual objects in aerial video to assist people in locating signs of missing persons in wilderness areas. The detector presented here makes use of anomaly detection methods originally designed for hyperspectral imagery. Multiple anomaly detection methods are considered, implemented, and evaluated. These anomalies are then aggregated into spatiotemporal objects by using the video's inherent spatial and temporal redundancy. The results are therefore summarized into a list of unusual objects to enhance the search technician's video review interface. In the user study reported here, unusual objects found by the detector were overlaid on the video during review. This increased participants' ability to find relevant objects in a simulated search without significantly affecting the rate of false detection. Other effects and possible ways to improve the user interface are also discussed.
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Fenimore, Carson D. "A Foveated System for Wilderness Search and Rescue in Manned Aircraft." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2011. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2744.
Full textAbstract:
Wilderness search and rescue can be assisted by video searchers in manned aircraft. The video searcher's primary task is to find clues on the ground. Due to altitude, it may be difficult to resolve details on the ground with a standard video camera. As the video streams at a constant frame rate, the searcher may become distracted by other tasks. While handling these tasks the searcher may miss important clues or spend extra time flying over the search area; either outcome decreases both the effectiveness of the video searcher and the chances of successfully finding missing persons. We develop an efficient software system that allows the video searcher to deal with distractions while identifying, resolving, and geolocating clues using mixed-resolution video. We construct an inexpensive camera rig that feeds video and telemetry to this system. We also develop a simple flight simulator for generating synthetic search video for simulation and testing purposes. To validate our methods we conduct a user study and a field trial. An analysis of the user study results suggests that our system can combine the video streams without loss of performance in the primary or secondary search task. The resulting gains in screen-space efficiency can then be used to present more information, such as scene context or larger-resolution images. Additionally, the field trial suggests that the software is capable of robustly operating in a real-world environment.
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Acuna, Virgilio. "Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Wireless Localization in Search and Rescue." FIU Digital Commons, 2017. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/3646.
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This thesis presents how unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can successfully assist in search and rescue (SAR) operations using wireless localization. The zone-grid to partition to capture/detect WiFi probe requests follows the concepts found in Search Theory Method. The UAV has attached a sensor, e.g., WiFi sniffer, to capture/detect the WiFi probes from victims or lost people’s smartphones. Applying the Random-Forest based machine learning algorithm, an estimation of the user's location is determined with a 81.8% accuracy.
UAV technology has shown limitations in the navigational performance and limited flight time. Procedures to optimize these limitations are presented. Additionally, how the UAV is maneuvered during flight is analyzed, considering different SAR flight patterns and Li-Po battery consumption rates of the UAV. Results show that controlling the UAV by remote-controll detected the most probes, but it is less power efficient compared to control it autonomously.
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Nanjanath, Maitreyi. "Scale estimation by a robot in an urban search and rescue environment." Thesis, Texas A&M University, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/519.
Full textAbstract:
Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) involves having to enter and explore partially collapsed buildings in search for victims trapped by the collapse. There are many hazards in doing this, because of the possibility of additional collapses, explosions, fires, or flooding of the area being searched. The use of robots for USAR would increase the safety of the operation for the humans involved, and make the operation faster, because the robots could penetrate areas inaccessible to human beings. Teleoperated robots have been deployed in USAR situations to explore confined spaces in the collapsed buildings and send back images of the interior to rescuers. These deployments have resulted in the identification of several problems found during the operation of these robots. This thesis addresses a problem that has been encountered repeatedly in these robots: the determination of the scale of unrecognizable objects in the camera views from the robot. A procedure that would allow the extraction of size using a laser pointer mounted on the robot's camera is described, and an experimental setup and results that verify this procedure have been shown. Finally, ways to extend the procedure have been explored
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Pele, Odiase Oziegbe-orhuwa. "An active touch approach to object detection in urban search and rescue." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.493964.
Full textAbstract:
One of the fundamental challenges in robotics is object detection in unstructured environments which includes urban search and rescue (USAR). In these environments, objects' properties are not known a priori, vision is partially or totally impaired and sensing is susceptible to errors. Furthermore, the noncontact sensors such as sonar sensors, video cameras and infrared sensors used for object detection have limitations that make them inadequate for successful completion of object detection tasks in USAR. As a solution, the active touch approach for object detection is proposed.
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Sundqvist, Jacob, and Jonas Ekskog. "Victim Localization Using RF-signals and Multiple Agents in Search & Rescue." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Reglerteknik, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-120620.
Full textAbstract:
A common problem in existing Search And Rescue (SAR) systems is that they must be activated by the missing person in order to work. This requires an awareness of the the risk of becoming distressed, which in many cases is not feasible. Furthermore, most of the localization systems require specialized hardware.In this thesis, the victim is assumed to wear a cellphone that could be located using readily available consumer electronics. A method of estimating the position of a transmitter, given radio signal measurements at different locations, is developed and verified with real and simulated data. A proof-of-concept system is built in which several users can jointly collect received signal strength data at different locations using mobile phones. The system analyzes the data in real-time and guides the users in the search by estimating the origin of the signal.An outdoor field test is conducted in which the searchers using the system are able to locate the hidden target phone without prior knowledge regarding the position. We are able to localize the victim with an accuracy of 10-20 meters in a timely manner using android smartphones. This shows the potential of a similar system in \abbrSAR scenarios. However, more work is needed to make the system viable in real scenarios and to remove some of the delimitations of the current implementation.
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Chua, Boon Heng. "INTEGRATION OF MULTIPLE UNMANNED SYSTEMS IN AN URBAN SEARCH AND RESCUE ENVIRONMENT." Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10945/32805.
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In view of the local, regional and global security trends over the past decade, the threats of disaster to the populace inhabiting urbanized areas are real and there is a need for increased vigilance. There can be multiple causes for urban disaster natural disasters, terrorist attack and urban warfare are all viable. This thesis focused on the event in which an urban search and rescue operation is required due to the aftermath of a terrorist activity. Systems engineering techniques were utilized to analyze the problem space and suggested a plausible solution. Application of unmanned vehicles in the scenario enhanced the reconnaissance, intelligence and surveillance capabilities of the responding forces, while limiting the exposure risk of personnel. One of the many challenges facing unmanned systems in a cluttered environment is a capability to rapidly generate reactive obstacle avoidance trajectories. A direct method of calculus of variations was applied for the unmanned platforms to achieve mission objectives collaboratively, and perform real-time trajectory optimization for a collision-free flight. Dynamic models were created to enable simulated operations within the thesis design scenario. Experiments conducted in an indoor lab verified the unmanned systems ability to avoid obstacles and carry out collaborative missions successfully.
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Tatakis, Konstantinos. "Saving people: a comparative study of 2 European Search and Rescue Organizations." Thesis, Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS), 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-21851.
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O'loughlin, Benjamin. "Evaluation of Search and Rescue Planning Tools on the West Florida Shelf." Scholar Commons, 2016. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6557.
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The Coast Guard conducts over 20,000 search and rescue cases a year with approximately 5% of them occurring within the coastal waters of the West Florida Shelf (WFS). Each search effort is planned using the Coast Guard’s Search and Rescue Optimal Planning System (SAROPS) which uses model inputs to create composite probability distributions based on the results of Monte Carlo projections of thousands of particle trajectories. However, SAROPS is limited by the quality of model inputs and their associated errors. This study utilizes observations from three surface drifter deployments on the WFS to evaluate the effectiveness of available surface current models, including one model not currently in use by the Coast Guard. Additionally, the performance of high-frequency (HF) Radar observations is evaluated against the models. The HF Radar root-mean-square errors (RMSE) were found to be on the order of 10 cm/s, and a model created with objectively mapped HF Radar data was found to out-perform all available models. Additionally, a comparison of model skills (using a normalized Lagrangian separation method) showed the West Florida Coastal Ocean Model (WFCOM) to have better skill on both the inner and outer shelf regions of the WFS when compared to other models.
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Kleiner, Alexander. "Mapping and exploration for search and rescue with humans and mobile robots." [S.l. : s.n.], 2007.
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Huang, Jyh-How. "Occasionally connected wireless sensor networks for search and rescue and wildlife monitoring." Connect to online resource, 2008. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3337106.
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Rasmussen, Nathan D. "Combined Visible and Infrared Video for Use in Wilderness Search and Rescue." Diss., CLICK HERE for online access, 2009. http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/ETD/image/etd2854.pdf.
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Bin, Yusof Mohd Ismail. "The development of mobile robot platform for urban search and rescue environment." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2013. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/5075/.
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Search and rescue (SAR) mission always takes place when disasters happen. Disaster could be defined into two categories, namely natural disaster and man-made disaster. Natural disasters normally cover a large area making the SAR mission’s team require an aerial view from airplane. This is because it changes the geographical landscape of the affected areas in huge perimeters. The impact is not only changing the whole landscapes, but it also impacts on residences, commercial buildings, transportations and communication infrastructures. This is always the primary reason of choosing an air vehicle as a first respond for any natural disaster. Meanwhile, made-made disasters occur in small areas relative to natural disaster. Terrorist bombing, structural collapse because of human failures or serious accident are some examples of man-made disaster. In addition, the effect from natural disaster such as earthquake also resulting horrendous structural collapse. The challenges for this rescue operation are focused on the interior of the rubble and entire external extent of the damage often not as primary interest because most victims are trapped inside, under the rubbles. Locating, extracting and rescuing any survivors will become the main goal for any rescue mission. Besides, the mission also deals with a lot of potentially dangerous situation such as further collapse, explosions, hazardous gas leaks and fire. Extreme high temperature from fire or explosions prevent rescuer to go down further into rubbles. Urban search and rescue (USAR) is the term that is being used recently for the rescue operation after man-made disaster. Conventionally, dog has been used to identify location of any potential survivors in the rubble. Again, capabilities of dog rescuer are restricted by certain working temperature, uncertainty of void size and fatigue factor. USAR operation is like race against time where trapped survivors cannot wait any longer. Further collapse or explosion may happen anytime. Therefore, the rescue team should have ideal strategy and tactic in order to maximize numbers of survivors being extract from rubble but also minimise the risk face by rescuer. Hazards is everywhere at disaster site. Human rescuers as well as dog are exposed to danger such as further collapse which would trap them in rubble and resulting an increased number of victims. This kind of situation make USAR uncertain. As a result, hazard identification and situation awareness have to be conducted concurrently with finding survivors. Robotic system, in many ways, have shown its versatility in wide range of applications. For instance, a modern and sophisticated automative assembly plant employ robotic systems in the production line in order to fullfil a specific part assembly task. On the other hand, robotic systems also started to be used as exploration vehicle in unknown world such as deep sea and outer space exploration purposes. In many aspects, the implementation of robotic systems in these applications have a significant impact to the overall process flow of the specific application. Having said that, mobile robots use in many deep sea explorations help scientists to discover the 'underworld' where human cannot explore. Therefore, implementation of robotic system in USAR operation is inevitable. In fact, it has been used in several USAR operation including the 9/11 World Trade Centre tragedy and Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. The physical design of mobile robot is one of the main challenges to implement robotic system in USAR operation. The ability to manouver and negotiate with rough terrain is highly essential. In addition, the physical design is also need appropriate sensors in order to sense the environment. Therefore, the overall mechatronic structure must consist a robust platform equipped with sensors and actuators and able to navigate seemlessly on extreme rough terrain as well as perform designated task (e.g., find survivors, clean debris or conduct onsite disaster assessment). In order for a mobile robot to operate in unknown world such as USAR environment, it is crucially important for the mobile robot to have certain level of autonomy to plan a desired behaviour and act according to the surrounding. Eventhough it is very challenging to program a mobile robot for this type of environment, a comprehensive control architecture provide a systematic overview of the overall programming structure whilst simplifiying the programming procedure. On top of that, the ability of the overall robot system to plan and track its mission is clearly present in the control architecture. Navigation problem, which is one of the common problem in any exploration robot, also can be solved systematically. In general navigation task, a mobile robot is required to move according to the prior designated trajectory, normally in 2-dimension (flat surface). However, a mobile robot that is design for the USAR operation should be able work and navigate in unknown, uncertain and complex environment. This thesis describes the development of a mobile robot system motivated by the shape-shifting or variable geometry tracked vehicle (VGTV) configuration. The mobile robot is designed with expectation to be able to traverse on various types of terrain and enhance stability to prevent tip-over mishap. The practical work is evaluated by experimental trials on prepared terrains such as staircase, ramp and curb. On top of that, the control framework is outlined to set the objectives of the mobile robot system based on the control hierarchy. This set of works is further simulated with the aim to solve navigation problems as well as to determine the mobile robot behaviour when it is required to travel on uneven surface.
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Tian, Yulun. "Reliable and resource-aware collaborative SLAM for multi-robot search and rescue." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019. https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122417.
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Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2019<br>Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.<br>Includes bibliographical references (pages 67-74).<br>Collaborative simultaneous localization and mapping (CSLAM) is a core capability for many multi-robot systems operating in GPS-denied environments. Motivated by the application of forest search and rescue, this thesis presents two contributions that advance state-of-the-art CSLAM systems. The first part proposes a reliable loop closure procedure for the forest environment. Complex occlusions and strong perceptual aliasing often make it extremely difficult to detect previously visited areas. By leveraging stable tree features extracted from the environment, our approach significantly improves precision and recall during loop closure detection. The proposed technique is fully integrated into a centralized CSLAM system, and is extensively validated during real-world collaborative exploration missions in the forest. The second part of this thesis proposes a resource-aware framework for distributed loop closure detection in CSLAM. Detecting inter-robot loop closures is a resource-demanding process that involves exchanging observations and verifying potential matches. This poses severe challenges for mobile robots as they are frequently limited by available onboard resources. We propose a principled framework for robots to seamlessly adapt to such resource constraints while maximizing performance. Given budgets on computation and communication, our proposed method maximizes a task-oriented performance metric by selecting and verifying a budget-feasible set of potential loop closures. We show that this problem is NP-hard in general. Then, we provide simple approximation algorithms and leverage results on monotone submodular maximization to establish provable performance guarantees. The proposed framework is extensively evaluated on real and synthetic SLAM benchmarks.<br>"Work supported in part by the NASA Convergent Aeronautics Solutions project Design Environment for Novel Vertical Lift Vehicles (DELIVER), and by ARL DCIST under Cooperative Agreement Number W911NF-17-2-0181"--Page 5<br>by Yulun Tian.<br>S.M.<br>S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
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Lienemann, Matthew A. "Automated Multi-Modal Search and Rescue using Boosted Histogram of Oriented Gradients." DigitalCommons@CalPoly, 2015. https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/1507.
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Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) provides a platform for many automated tasks and with an ever increasing advances in computing, these tasks can be more complex. The use of UAVs is expanded in this thesis with the goal of Search and Rescue (SAR), where a UAV can assist fast responders to search for a lost person and relay possible search areas back to SAR teams. To identify a person from an aerial perspective, low-level Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) feature descriptors are used over a segmented region, provided from thermal data, to increase classification speed. This thesis also introduces a dataset to support a Bird’s-Eye-View (BEV) perspective and tests the viability of low level HOG feature descriptors on this dataset. The low-level feature descriptors are known as Boosted Histogram of Oriented Gradients (BHOG) features, which discretizes gradients over varying sized cells and blocks that are trained with a Cascaded Gentle AdaBoost Classifier using our compiled BEV dataset. The classification is supported by multiple sensing modes with color and thermal videos to increase classification speed. The thermal video is segmented to indicate any Region of Interest (ROI) that are mapped to the color video where classification occurs. The ROI decreases classification time needed for the aerial platform by eliminating a per-frame sliding window. Testing reveals that with the use of only color data iv and a classifier trained for a profile of a person, there is an average recall of 78%, while the thermal detection results with an average recall of 76%. However, there is a speed up of 2 with a video of 240x320 resolution. The BEV testing reveals that higher resolutions are favored with a recall rate of 71% using BHOG features, and 92% using Haar-Features. In the lower resolution BEV testing, the recall rates are 42% and 55%, for BHOG and Haar-Features, respectively.