Related papers: SARDO: An Automated Search-and-Rescue Drone-based …
The increasing spreading of small commercial Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs, aka drones) presents serious threats for critical areas such as airports, power plants, governmental and military facilities. In fact, such UAVs can easily disturb…
We propose and implement a novel indoor localization scheme, Swadloon, built upon an accurate acoustic direction finding. Swadloon leverages sensors of the smartphone without the requirement of any specialized devices. The scheme Swadloon…
Drones are not fully trusted yet. Their reliance on radios and cameras for navigation raises safety and privacy concerns. These systems can fail, causing accidents, or be misused for unauthorized recordings. Considering recent regulations…
Along with climate change, more frequent extreme events, such as flooding and tropical cyclones, threaten the livelihoods and wellbeing of poor and vulnerable populations. One of the most immediate needs of people affected by a disaster is…
LiDAR-based localization and mapping is one of the core components in many modern robotic systems due to the direct integration of range and geometry, allowing for precise motion estimation and generation of high quality maps in real-time.…
Detecting changes on the Earth, such as urban development, deforestation, or natural disaster, is one of the research fields that is attracting a great deal of attention. One promising tool to solve these problems is satellite imagery.…
Motivated by issues dealing with delivery of emergency medical products during humanitarian disasters, this paper addresses the general problem of delivering perishable items to remote demands accessible only by helicopters or drones. Each…
The increasingly sophisticated sensors supported by modern smartphones open up novel research opportunities, such as mobile phone sensing. One of the most challenging of these research areas is context-aware and activity recognition. The…
Given the importance of forests and their role in maintaining the ecological balance, which directly affects the planet, the climate, and the life on this planet, this research presents the problem of forest fire monitoring using drones.…
Public earthquake early warning systems have the potential to reduce individual risk by warning people of an incoming tremor but their development has been hampered by costly infrastructure. Furthermore, users' understanding of such a…
This study investigates unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) trajectory planning strategies for localizing a target mobile device in emergency situations. The global navigation satellite system (GNSS)-based accurate position information of a…
This paper has been withdrawn by the authors. Cellular network data has become a hot source of study for extraction of user-mobility and spatio-temporal trends. Location binding in mobility data can be done through different methods like…
In this paper, we explore the application of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in maritime search and rescue (mSAR) missions, focusing on medium-sized fixed-wing drones and quadcopters. We address the challenges and limitations inherent in…
Cell phone coverage and high-speed service gaps persist in rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa, impacting public access to mobile-based financial, educational, and humanitarian services. Improving maps of telecommunications infrastructure can…
We are highly vulnerable to either natural or artificial catastrophes and therefore, Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) operators need reliable wireless communications for successful operations especially in critical rescue…
Drones, or general UAVs, equipped with a single camera have been widely deployed to a broad range of applications, such as aerial photography, fast goods delivery and most importantly, surveillance. Despite the great progress achieved in…
We present DynamicSLAM: an indoor localization technique that eliminates the need for the daunting calibration step. DynamicSLAM is a novel Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) framework that iteratively acquires the feature map of…
LiDAR-based SLAM is recognized as one effective method to offer localization guidance in rough environments. However, off-the-shelf LiDAR-based SLAM methods suffer from significant pose estimation drifts, particularly components relevant to…
At a time when drones are increasingly associated with hostile operations, we re-purpose them for humanitarian and life-saving applications. However, adapting search and rescue drones for battlefield triage remains extremely challenging;…
Search and Rescue (SAR) is searching for and providing help to people in danger. In the UK, SAR teams are typically charities with limited resources, and SAR missions are time critical. Search managers need to objectively decide which…