Source-linked AI summary
Intelligent Drone Swarm for Search and Rescue Operations at Sea
Vincenzo Lomonaco, Angelo Trotta, Marta Ziosi, Juan de Dios Yáñez Ávila, Natalia Díaz-Rodríguez
TL;DR
Large-area maritime search and rescue is difficult with costly, human-operated systems and current UAV limits in endurance and communication. The paper proposes an autonomous, self-organizing intelligent UAV swarm to expand coverage and improve communication efficiency, while acknowledging unresolved deployment challenges.
Problem
Maritime search and rescue requires monitoring large areas, but current ship- and aircraft-based solutions are expensive, while individual UAVs face limited flight autonomy, coverage, and communication bandwidth.
Source: pp. 1–2Method
The paper proposes an autonomous fleet of self-organizing intelligent UAVs using multi-hop aerial communication and locally running detection algorithms.
Source: p. 2Results
The proposed swarm is intended to cover larger areas in less time, improve autonomy and coordination, and increase communication efficiency during maritime SAR operations.
Source: p. 2Takeaways & Limitations
An intelligent drone swarm offers a proposed path toward broader and more efficient maritime SAR coverage despite the system's high upfront costs.
Source: p. 2Implementation remains constrained by unresolved technical, financial, and legal problems, as well as strong winds and the lack of safe landing sites at sea.
Source: pp. 1–2
Abstract
from arXiv · showhide
In recent years, a rising numbers of people arrived in the European Union, traveling across the Mediterranean Sea or overland through Southeast Europe in what has been later named as the European migrant crisis. In the last 5 years, more than 16 thousands people have lost their lives in the Mediterranean sea during the crossing. The United Nations Secretary General Strategy on New Technologies is supporting the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics to accelerate the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, which includes safe and regular migration processes among the others. In the same spirit, the central idea of this project aims at using AI technology for Search And Rescue (SAR) operations at sea. In particular, we propose an autonomous fleet of self-organizing intelligent drones that would enable the coverage of a broader area, speeding-up the search processes and finally increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of migrants rescue operations.