Modified helicopters help in search and rescue missions

An engineer at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has developed a helicopter which conducted an aerial scan of the land affected by the recent Sichuan Earthquake to help the authorities assess the damage there. The helicopter, installed with a video camera, was linked to the Global Positioning System (GPS) and flew on its own on a preset course. The helicopter was deployed in Sichuan on 15 May, only three days after the earthquake hit the province, and in the following nine days, it took aerial photos of twelve affected cities, towns and counties.

Wang Tao, the student who developed the helicopter, said: “The aerial scanning provides immense help to rescue and recovery operations. It helps the working teams to assess the damage, set priorities, and helped authorities to chart a course of action. There are numerous benefits in using an unmanned automated helicopter to take aerial photos of disaster sites. First, it is fast, as the helicopter can reach the required location within minutes. Second, it is safe, because there is no need for people to travel over disaster-stricken routes which are often treacherous. Third, it is much cheaper than flying real helicopters to carry out reconnaissance.”

At the same time that Wang Tao has developed his helicopter, A U.K. multidisciplinary academic and industry team has been working on developing semi-autonomous robotic helicopters for search and rescue operations. The UAVs will search for people in isolated regions, monitor large-area disasters such as floods or forest fires, sample gas emissions over industrial disaster sites, and act as a communication platform when the regular infrastructure is down.

The project is led by Prof Steve Hales of University College London, which together with Oxford University Computing Laboratory will contribute computing, sensor design, and helicopter platform expertise. Professor Gerard Parr of Ulster University’s telecommunications department and Professor Sally McClean from the mathematics department will work on communication, control and data management. “We had the novel idea of combining the various intelligent sensors, the airframe and the engineering with flight-path modelling and telecommunications to form this multidisciplinary project for intelligent UAVs,” said Parr. “We chose a rotor-based platform for stability during search and rescue operations.”

The project aims to send 10 to 12 interacting robot helicopters, working in groups of three or four, to cover a large area in the shortest possible time, without crashing into each other. If, for example, a rambler was missing in the Lake District, the UAVs would use an algorithm quickly to scan the largest possible area using infrared and other sensors. If one UAV detected its target — such as a heat source or mobile phone signal — it could break off from its formation flight to investigate and relay its findings back to an operator.

The UAVs could fly at up to 30 mph and stay in the air for up to half an hour, depending on their payload. A key challenge will be energy management, to keep them operational as long as possible. They could also be manually controlled from a mobile command base such as a jeep or manned aircraft. They would be fitted with appropriate sensors for their mission, which could include heat sensitive cameras, gas particulate filters, wireless communication equipment and GPS technology.

The teams were awarded a £2 million grant under the U.K. government’s WINES III (Wireless Intelligent Networked Systems) research programme for the project, which runs until 2012. They will be supported by industrial partners including Thales, BAE Systems, Communications Research Center, BT Research Laboratories, Boeing, and the Home Office Science Development Branch.