High-Resolution Image Transmission from UAV to Ground Station for Search and Rescue Missions Planning

Abstract

Search and rescue (SAR) missions comprise search for, and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. Providing the best possible input for the planners and search teams, up-to-date information about the terrain is of essential importance because every additional hour needed to search a person decreases probability of success. Therefore, availability of aerial images and updated terrain maps as the bases for planning and monitoring SAR missions in real-time is very important for rescuers. In this paper, we present a system for transmission of high-resolution images from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to the ground station (GS). We define and calculate data rate and transmission distance requirements between the UAV and GS in a mission scenario. Five tests were designed and carried out to confirm the viability of the proposed system architecture and modules. Test results present throughput measurements for various UAV and GS distances, antenna heights and UAV antenna yaw angles. Experimental results from the series of conducted outdoor tests show that the proposed solution using two pMDDL2450 datalinks at 2.4 GHz and a directional antenna on the receiving side can be used for a real-time transmission of high-resolution images acquired with a camera on a UAV. Achieved throughput at a UAV-GS distance of 5 km was 1.4 MB/s (11.2 Mbps). The limitations and possible improvements of the proposed system as well as future work are also discussed.

Person Mobility Algorithm and Geographic Information System for Search and Rescue Missions Planning

“…Therefore, if possible, up-to-date information about the terrain is very important and incorporates aerial images of the area of interest taken at the time of the mission by satellite or UAV (more detailed). The drawback to this approach is the additional time needed to collect and transfer needed images for new maps [18]. On the other hand, high-resolution images collected for this purpose can be used for the automatic detection of humans [19][20][21].…”