Ground and aerial robots as an aid to alpine search and rescue: Initial SHERPA outcomes

Marconi, Lorenzo; Leutenegger, Stefan; Lynen, Simon; Burri, Michael; Naldi, Roberto; Melchiorri, Claudio

doi:10.1109/ssrr.2013.6719381

Cited by 22 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…Drawing inspiration from the search and rescue operations described in [15], this work introduces a novel planning and control strategy to let Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) aerial vehicles and differential wheel ground robots to navigate in populated environments. In order to reduce the computational cost, the proposed motion planner simply generates in real-time sequences of way-points satisfying geometric constraints calculated off-line taking into account for the current knowledge of the environment and for the performance of the tracking control law.…”

Section: B Contributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A combined planning and control strategy for mobile robots navigation in populated environments

Furci

Naldi

Karaman

et al. 2015

2015 54th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC)

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In this work we present a combined planning and control strategy to let agile autonomous robots navigating in real-world populated environments by means of range limited sensors. In order to reduce the computational cost of obtaining a dynamically-feasible path, the proposed solution relies on a simple way-points generation subject to geometrical constraints. Conditions ensuring feasibility of the obtained trajectories also in the presence of possible exogenous disturbances such as wind are then derived by taking into account the interconnection between the vehicle dynamics, the low-level stabilizing controller and the trajectory planner. As an application, the navigation of a quadrotor and of a differential wheel robot in an unknown forest environment is proposed. In particular, the proposed framework is employed to let the vehicle moving at the highest possible speed that guarantees no collision with obstacles.

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Section: B Contributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A combined planning and control strategy for mobile robots navigation in populated environments

Furci

Naldi

Karaman

et al. 2015

2015 54th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC)

Self Cite

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“…Since 2013 the SHERPA project, funded by the European Community's 7th Framework Program (Marconi et al 2013), works on addressing the development of a team of ground and aerial robots to act as an aid to alpine search and rescue missions. Currently, some results of using a quad-rotor UAV equipped with avalanche beacon have been shown.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multipurpose UAV for search and rescue operations in mountain avalanche events

Silvagni

Tonoli

Zenerino

et al. 2016

Geomatics, Natural Hazards and Risk

306

134

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This paper presents a multipurpose UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) for mountain rescue operations. The multi-rotors based flying platform and its embedded avionics are designed to meet environmental requirements for mountainous terrain such as low temperatures, high altitude and strong winds, assuring the capability of carrying different payloads (separately or together) such as: avalanche beacon (ARTVA) with automatic signal recognition and path following algorithms for the rapid location of snowcovered body; camera (visible and thermal) for search and rescue of missing persons on snow and in woods during the day or night; payload deployment to drop emergency kits or specific explosive cartridge for controlled avalanche detachment. The resulting small (less than 5 kg) UAV is capable of full autonomous flight (including takeoff and landing) of a pre-programmed, or easily configurable, custom mission. Furthermore, the autopilot manages the sensors measurements (i.e. beacons or cameras) to update the flying mission automatically in flight. Specific functionalities such as terrain following were developed and implemented. Ground station programming of the UAV is not needed, except compulsory monitoring, as the rescue mission can be accomplished in a full automatic mode.

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“…The ALCEDO system uses drones to carry out rescue of avalanche victims through autonomous UAV‐assisted search for a buried person (http://www.alcedo.ethz.ch). The SHERPA project aims to develop a system that combines ground and aerial robots to support alpine SAR missions (Marconi et al., ). Recently, Sun, Jiang, and Wen () have elaborated a target detection and positioning system for SAR applications.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A real‐time field experiment on search and rescue operations assisted by unmanned aerial vehicles

Niedzielski

Jurecka

Miziński

et al. 2018

Journal of Field Robotics

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This paper reports on the performance of a novel system for supporting search and rescue activities, known as SARUAV (search and rescue unmanned aerial vehicle), in a field experiment during which a real-world search scenario was simulated. The experiment took place on March 2-3, 2017, at two sites located in southwestern Poland. Three groups acted in the experiment: (1) SARUAV and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operators, (2) ground searchers, and (3) participants who simulated being lost. In the uncomplicated topography without snow cover, the system identified the lost persons, and ground searchers found them 31 min after the SARUAV report had been disseminated. In the mountainous area covered with snow, one person was found within 9 min after searchers received the SARUAV report; however, the other two persons were not identified by SARUAV. The field experiment served as a proof of concept of the SARUAV system, confirmed its potential in person identification studies, and helped to identify numerous scientific and technical problems that need to be solved to develop a mature version of the system. K E Y W O R D Slost person, nested k-means, ring model, target detection, unmanned aerial vehicle

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Ground and aerial robots as an aid to alpine search and rescue: Initial SHERPA outcomes

Cited by 22 publications

References 1 publication

A combined planning and control strategy for mobile robots navigation in populated environments

A combined planning and control strategy for mobile robots navigation in populated environments

Multipurpose UAV for search and rescue operations in mountain avalanche events

A real‐time field experiment on search and rescue operations assisted by unmanned aerial vehicles

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