Disaster Prevention and Emergency Response Using Unmanned Aerial Systems

Abstract

This work highlights the important and advantageous use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in emergency response operations and focuses on the importance of matching end-user needs with existing UAS technical capabilities, specifications and payloads characteristics to achieve best results. Firstly, a detailed procedure is derived for matching end-user needs to technological requirements. Thereafter the methodology to accurately estimate the overall mission time is derived based on the aforementioned needs and requirements. Finally, detailed evaluation of the proposed procedure and methodology is done through realistic examples extracted from missions set out by civil protection organizations. It is shown that properly configuring and operating UAS technology can significantly improve utilization both in preparedness and response to emergencies.