Research and Development of UAV-based Search and Rescue Support System

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26350450
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Social systems engineering/Safety system
• Research Institution: National Institute of Maritime, Port and Aviation Technology
• Principal Investigator: Kim Kangsoo 国立研究開発法人海上・港湾・航空技術研究所, その他部局等, グループ長 (30396907)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 自律無人飛行体 / 誘導・航法・制御 / 最短時間 / 最小高度 / 地形 / 遭難 / 捜索

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this project, we developed a testbed system for UAV-based search and rescue application. Not only hardware platform, but also guidance, navigation, and control strategies for our system in order to realize the optimal aerial survey have been derived. Roughly speaking, a radio wave emitted from a mobile information terminal such as smartphone or tablet PC forms s spherical isoelectric surface centered on that terminal. Therefore, area to be searched is determined as the superposed region of all possible individual isoelectric surfaces. In order to cover a given search region in the shortest flight time, a UAV has to fly over the region as low altitude as possible. In our research, we developed a simulation-based optimal guidance for the UAV flight with minimal altitude and actually applied it to a flight test using our testbed.

Free Research Field

制御、航法、最適化、機械力学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究では、自律無人飛行体による遭難者の早期発見に向け、最小高度飛行により最短時間で全捜索域をカバーする最適誘導航法を開発した。本最適誘導航法は山岳地域など急峻な地形の上空でも地面との衝突を回避しながら、最小高度で飛行できる航路点を導出する新しい概念の誘導航法である。こうした誘導航法を実装した自律無人飛行体による遭難者捜索は、より迅速な遭難者の発見につながり、遭難事故から大切な命を守る救難活動への貢献が期待できる。