Sensor Processing and Path Planning Framework for a Search and Rescue UAV Network
Andrew W. Brown, Brian Evan Franklin, Jonathan Graham Estabrook · Digital WPI · 2012
Search and rescue operations are a costly endeavour. The advent of new technologies, such as unmanned aerial vehicles, can decrease the cost of such operations and increase rescue rates by finding the lost individual in a faster manner. The issue currently faced is how to develop and deploy such a system comprised of multiple UAVs. This report describes a framework which, through the use of modular components, provides for the autonomous search and detection of a target with the flexibility to change hardware and mission specific components at will. This framework integrates multi-agent path planning, wireless communication and coordination, and on board sensor processing, fusing an FPGA, DSP, and software platform for maximum flexibility with real time performance.