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Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Rescue and Triage

Abstract:

In recent years, the rescue of natural disaster victims has included the support of robotic systems to search for trapped people. However, the victims that are found by robots do not have their vital signs evaluated until the rescue team reaches their location. This can complicate matters in difficult-to-access locations and places affected by toxic waste or radiation, where the physical integrity of rescue teams is at risk. This research proposes the use of an unmanned aerial vehicle in the search for victims and performing basic triage (heart and respiratory rate measurement) through a contactless method to support rescue efforts. The main contribution is a decrease in response time in case of a search-and-rescue emergency. The system consists of navigating over a certain area designated as the disaster zone for the search of possible disaster victims that are lying on the ground. Once the victim is located, the navigation is reprogrammed to carry out the search and face recognition. Finally, by automatically selecting a skin area, the heart and respiratory rates are measured. The measurement is carried out through the photoplethysmography imaging technique, without any contact sensor. The comparison of the basic triage results with and without contact confirms to us the efficacy of the proposed method. The Bland-Altman data analysis shows a close correlation of heart and respiratory rates measured with both approaches (correlation coefficient of 0.90 for heart rate and 0.84 for respiratory rate).