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The aim of the system, which will be up and running at the end of 2011, is to reduce the risk and cost of unmanned aerial vehicle missions

High technology for improving the rescue of people

The Institute of Geomatics, which is made up of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and the Government of Catalonia, is leading a European project set up to promote the use of unmanned aerial vehicles on research and rescue missions. For the first time ever, this system combines enhanced GPS/EGNOS technology with sensors called redundant inertial measuring units.

21/12/2010

This new concept in navigation, developed by the Institute of Geometrics in the framework of the Close-Search project, is based on the use of an enhanced GPS device thanks to EGNOS, the European satellite-based navigation system, which makes signals more accurate and more reliable.

It also uses navigation sensors called redundant inertial measuring units (RIMU), which add reliable data about the speed of a vehicle and its position or attitude to the information about location provided by the GPS. These sensors have been used in conjunction with a magnetometer and a barometer to bring about this unique concept in navigation, which will also use information generated by the EU’s Galileo global satellite navigation system that is to be implemented in the near future.

First tests

The first test phase of the unmanned aerial vehicle prototype was completed at the end of November. Tests were undertaken in the framework of the European project, Close-Search, in the shape of simulated search missions in Copons (Barcelona).

Testing involved the implementation of equipment comprising an infrared video camera on a helicopter of around 75 km, which detects people in places that are difficult to reach for search and rescue (SAR) teams. The system also includes a land station, where two technicians monitor the mission (flight parameters and infrared images) and who, if necessary, can act as a link with search and rescue teams to put an SAR procedure in place.

Reduced risk and cost

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles on search and rescue missions makes it possible to reduce their cost and improve their success, as well as to keep risk to a minimum. Their use has increased over the past 10 years in extremely dangerous situations by air rescue teams, as was the case of hurricane Katrina in southern United States, or in cases in which operations are hindered in nighttime missions.

The Close-Search project, funded by the EU’s Seventh R&D Framework Program, is being carried out by the Institute of Geomatics, together with the Industry Association of Navarre, the École Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne (Switzerland), Deimos Engenharia (Portugal), the Cartographic Institute of Catalonia and the General Directorate for Civil Protection of the Government of Catalonia. It is anticipated that the system will be up and running by September 2011.

The Institute of Geomatics is also researching the implementation of this system for drawing cartographic maps of areas that are difficult to reach and of linear corridors, as well as for plotting highways and railroads.

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