ABSTRACT:Significant efforts are invested by rescue agencies worldwide to save human lives during natural and man-made emergency situations including those that happen in wilderness locations. These emergency situations include but not limited to: accidents with alpinists, mountainous skiers, people hiking and lost in remote areas. Sometimes in a rescue operation hundreds of first responders are involved to save a single human life. There are two critical issues where geospatial imaging can be a very useful asset in rescue operations support: 1) human detection and 2) confirming a fact that detected a human being is alive. International group of researchers from the Unites States and Poland collaborated on a pilot research project devoted to identify a feasibility of use for the human detection and alive-human state confirmation small unmanned aerial vehicles (SUAVs) and inexpensive forward looking infrared (FLIR) sensors. Equipment price for both research teams was below $8,000 including 3DR quadrotor UAV and Lepton longwave infrared (LWIR) imager which costs around $250 (for the US team); DJI Inspire 1 UAS with commercial Tamarisc-320 thermal camera (for the Polish team). Specifically both collaborating groups performed independent experiments in the USA and Poland and shared imaging data of on the ground and airborne electro-optical and FLIR sensor imaging collected. In these experiments dead bodies were emulated by use of medical training dummies. Real humans were placed nearby as live human subjects. Electro-optical imagery was used for the research in optimal human detection algorithms. Furthermore, given the fact that a dead human body after several hours has a temperature of the surrounding environment our experiments were challenged by the SUAS data optimization, i.e., distance from SUAV to object so that the FLIR sensor is still capable to distinguish temperature differences between a dummy and a real human. Our experiments indicated feasibility of use SUAVs and small thermal sensors for the human detection scenarios described above. Differences in temperatures were collected by deployed imaging acquisition platform are interpretable on FLIR images visually. Moreover, we applied ENVI image processing functions for calibration and numerical estimations of such a temperature differences. There are more potential system functionalities such as voice messages from rescue teams and even distant medication delivery for the victims of described emergencies. This paper describes experiments, processing results, and future research in more details.

The municipal authorities are responsible for carrying out relevant, objective analysis of areas for revitalization, identifying problems and barriers, diagnosis of the causes and determiningthe appropriate range of activities. From the point of view of urban regeneration one of the key issues is to obtain timely and reliable geospatial data. The article presents the possibility of using digital images obtained from the UAV platform to support the urban regeneration process. As part of the research work involving an inventory of urban space one made photogrametry flights with UAVs DJI Inspire One. Data processing software that was used is Pix4D and QGIS. The results allow the conclusion that the use of UAV in the process of obtaining imaging geoinformation and spatial data for planning and documentation of revitalisation work may be practical mode near-real-time. It replaces the previously used laborious and lengthy process to update data while ensuring their detail and accuracy.

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The aim of the paper is to introduce a tool for the accurate assessment of the technical condition of buildings. The proposed methodology is becoming an efficient strategy for the massive inspection of building stocks, in big residential areas. The authors have developed an utility based on high-performance images captured by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The flights of the UAVs have been technically protocolized in order to get the proper high-quality information about the real condition of the building. After collecting the images a 3D model is generated and orthophotos of building facades are created. The graphical information is connected with tables of attributes which allow the interactive geo-referenced management and assessment. Main requirements and advantages of this visualization technique will be presented by analyzing a particular case study. The selected example will allow the illustration of the methodology. Ongoing developments and technical details about the information system and the analysis platform connected with the visualization tool will be also reported.

The aim of the paper is to explain the basic principles of carrying out an inventory and follow-up of buildings and their condition assessment, by using the Full Interactive Visualization Method for Building Condition Assessment platform. It is a platform enabling the implementation of construction inventory based on the remote cooperation of many specialists in the field of, among others: building construction, architecture, civil engineering, photogrammetry, CAD, UAV. This type of cooperation is of particular importance especially in the context of the current epidemiological situation related to COVID-19. The idea of the presented platform fits into the broadly understanding of Building Information Modeling. After introducing the methodology, stages of the inventory and follow-up process carried out within the platform are illustrated and discussed on the basis of a case study. Based on the obtained results it can be concluded that the proposed methodology creates a convenient, efficient and inexpensive tool for massive inspection of building resources in large areas. The inventory is based primarily on high-quality photo and video material obtained from the deck of an unmanned aerial vehicle and the expert knowledge of the inspector conducting the inspection. By combining digital images data (photos, 3D model, orthophotos) with substantive data (facade element classification tables, wear / defect classification tables), we get a platform that allows intuitive access to viewing, classification, editing and analysis of selected data.