Thermal Image Tracking for Search and Rescue Missions with a Drone

Abstract

Infrared thermal imaging is useful for human body recognition for search and rescue (SAR) missions. This paper discusses thermal object tracking for SAR missions with a drone. The entire process consists of object detection and multiple-target tracking. The You-Only-Look-Once (YOLO) detection model is utilized to detect people in thermal videos. Multiple-target tracking is performed via track initialization, maintenance, and termination. Position measurements in two consecutive frames initialize the track. Tracks are maintained using a Kalman filter. A bounding box gating rule is proposed for the measurement-to-track association. This proposed rule is combined with the statistically nearest neighbor association rule to assign measurements to tracks. The track-to-track association selects the fittest track for a track and fuses them. In the experiments, three videos of three hikers simulating being lost in the mountains were captured using a thermal imaging camera on a drone. Capturing was assumed under difficult conditions; the objects are close or occluded, and the drone flies arbitrarily in horizontal and vertical directions. Robust tracking results were obtained in terms of average total track life and average track purity, whereas the average mean track life was shortened in harsh searching environments.

Comprehensive Investigation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs): An In-Depth Analysis of Avionics Systems

“…A thermal camera is an equipment that captures and detects Infrared Radiation (IR) emitted by surrounding objects. This type of camera allows for imaging based on heat, which can be used for aerial surveillance, environment monitoring, and search-rescue processes [274]. Thermal cameras find applications in different UAV processes, such as the bridge infrastructure assessment shown in Figure 8.…”

Thermal Infrared-Image-Enhancement Algorithm Based on Multi-Scale Guided Filtering

“…Infrared thermal imaging technology plays a crucial role in medical examinations [1], firefighting and rescue [2], and target detection [3], among others. Infrared thermal imaging technology is characterized by its independence from illumination and its ability to operate around the clock [4]. It can compensate for the shortcomings of visible-light cameras, which struggle to function normally in special environments such as smoke, night-time, and strong light [5].…”