Tech Report Contribution

 In the tech report, I contributed mostly to the background portion of the report.

  1. Background

In this section, a general overview of a search and rescue drone will be evaluated.

  1. Search and Rescue(SAR)

Search and rescue (SAR) refers to the act of looking for and providing assistance to individuals who are facing distress or danger after a disaster. The area of search and rescue encompasses various specialised sub-fields, usually dependent on the type of environment where the search is taking place. Some of these subfields consist of mountain or cave rescue, ground search and rescue, urban search, etc. (Search and Rescue, 2023).

  1. How Drones are being Utilised for SAR

Baisali (n.d.) explains that drones offer significant advantages over ground vehicles in SAR operations due to their ability to traverse challenging terrain and remote areas. In addition, drones can quickly capture aerial data over large regions, allowing rescue teams to map the search area and identify potential locations where the missing individual may be trapped. Drones can also be equipped with a loudspeaker to broadcast messages, notifying the missing individual that they are being searched for. Thermal cameras are also installed in the SAR drone to aid in the search for missing individuals. According to Baisali (n.d.), a drone operator was able to locate a missing elderly gentleman in a field covered in tall grass, using a drone equipped with a thermal camera.

  1. Information about the DrN-15

According to the ST Engineering website (n.d.), as seen in Figure 1, the DrN-15 series of drones meet the strict safety guidelines mandated for conducting Beyond-Visual-Line-of-Sight (BVLOS) operations in Singapore, which have been authorised by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS). The drone weighs 12 kg, has a take-off weight of 15 kg, a payload weight of 3 kg, and an endurance of 40 minutes. The drone is equipped with various safety measures, such as navigation sensors, collision avoidance technology, flight boundaries, and the necessary authorization to operate within Singapore’s civil aerodromes. The DrN-15 is capable of operating in areas beyond its line of sight by utilising cellular 4G data connectivity. It is equipped with a subscriber identification module (SIM) card similar to cellular telephones, allowing it to effectively function in urban settings by leveraging the existing 4G cellular infrastructure to transmit data and video feeds to ground control systems (GCSs) around the globe with the use of a high definition (HD) camera, an infrared (IR) camera, and a high-resolution DSLR camera (Oliver, 2019).

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