The researchers of the Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute (RI) have developed an innovative system that allows drones to autonomously explore abandoned structures and coordinate with other robots during rescue operations. This new approach could prove crucial for emergency responders, allowing them to gather crucial information and make more informed decisions after a disaster.
The Importance of Advanced Rescue Drones
Every year, around 100 earthquakes cause damage around the world, including collapsed buildings and downed power lines. In these situations, it is essential for responders to quickly assess the scene and prioritize rescue efforts. The new system developed by researchers aims to make this process more efficient, minimizing redundant explorations and optimizing available resources.
The drones, using on-board lidar sensors, can detect quickly doorways and rooms, which are places where people are most likely to be trapped. The drones fly about six feet above the ground, transforming three-dimensional lidar data into two-dimensional maps that visualize the environment as an image made up of cells, or pixels. This allows the drones to identify structures like doorways and passageways and quickly navigate through them.
The Role of Lidar in Drone Efficiency
The researchers chose lidar sensors over cameras for two main reasons. First, sensors require less processing power than cameras. Second, a standard camera would have difficulty operating in dusty or smoke-filled environments, conditions common in collapsed structures.
The drones are not controlled by a single base station, but communicate with each other to make decisions and choose the best routes. They share the list of explored doors and rooms to avoid visiting the same places multiple times. Tests have shown that this system improves the efficiency of room exploration by 33.4% in simulations and 26.4% in real experiments.
Future prospects for rescue drones
Although the current system is limited to single-story buildings, researchers are working to extend the technology to multi-story buildings and explore the use of heterogeneous multi-robot systems. The goal is also to augment these systems with advanced vision and learning modules.
The researchers’ work was published in the journal IEEE Robotics and Automation Lettersand could represent a significant step forward in post-disaster relief operations.
#Advanced #Drones #Rescue #Autonomous #Exploration #Collapsed #Structures