Modelling a remotely piloted drone's search effectiveness in mountain rescue to inform standard operating procedures

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Mountain Rescue England and Wales reported nine days in 2017 without a mountain rescue callout and 97,208 total volunteer hours. Mountain rescue missions are time-critical, and mountain rescue teams are faced with logistical challenges, such as harsh terrain and weather, whilst also putting their lives at risk.Consumer camera-equipped drones are an emerging technology in search and rescue. Drones are becoming increasingly more cost-effective as a search asset in mountain rescue, which are expected to improve the performance and safety of mountain rescue teams, but there are limited standard operating procedures for the effective use of drones in mountain rescue.As technologies are becoming more and more autonomous nowadays, including drones, manually operated (remotely piloted) drones in mountain rescue are still preferred for the manoeuvres required for the obstacles that pose in a mountainous terrain real-time missing person search.This project aims to produce standard operating procedures for the use of a remotely piloted drone in mountain rescue based on modelled and simulated data of a remotely piloted drone's search effectiveness in mountain rescue.The specific objectives are:1. Develop knowledge on a remotely piloted drone's search effectiveness in search and rescue from scientific literature and other resources.2. Interview mountain rescue practitioners based on procedures used in a missing person search and experiences in using drones on missions.3. Model and simulate a remotely piloted drone's search effectiveness in mountain rescue missions.4. Produce standard operating procedures for the use of a remotely piloted drone in mountain rescue based on modelled and simulated data from the previous objective.5. Conduct a remotely piloted drone mock-up search for a missing person in a mountainous terrain and verify the standard operating procedures from the previous objective.This project will add to the limited scientific literature on a remotely piloted drone's search effectiveness in mountain rescue and the limited standard operating procedures for the use of drones in mountain rescue.