Indoor tracking using unmanned aerial vehicles

Search and rescue operations during emergencies are complex missions that put at risk the life of first responders. The main challenge is to detect the trapped and injured people inside buildings damaged by different hazards. With a tool showing on a map the number, location and health status of victims, first responders would be able to significantly reduce the evacuation time and save more lives. In this paper, an innovative real-time indoor localization system using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is proposed. The system includes anchor nodes (antennas) that are mounted on three UAVs flying outside the building and can track the position of people wearing a smart bracelet (tags). The system allows measuring both the absolute and relative location between groups of nodes in 3D without relying on any fixed communication infrastructure that could fail because of the disruptive event. In addition, vital parameters such as heart rate and body temperature can be monitored for each victim and rescuer wearing the bracelet. Each UAV collects, processes, and transfers the data to a portable gateway. A software application with a graphical user interface was developed to display the real-time position of the UAVs and tags with a color-coded indication of the accuracy. Preliminary results of the on-field tests of the systems are presented and discussed.