UAV-Enabled Wilderness Search and Rescue: A Human-Centered Approach

荒野搜救(WSAR)是在山区、沙漠、湖泊、河流或其他偏远地区寻找迷路或受伤的人并提供援助的任务。由于涉及荒野环境的遥远距离，搜索者经常依赖直升机和小型飞机的监视。虽然这些资源对搜索者非常有用，但这些资源具有局限性：资源消耗相当大，在需要资源和资源到达之间可能会有延误，地面搜索者和飞行员必须克服他们之间的通信障碍，而且飞机可能由于与崎岖地形有关的飞行限制而无法提供低空图像。该项目的中心假设是WSAR人员可以使用迷你(3-5英尺翼展)固定翼无人机(UAV)来高效地在荒野中寻找人。与小型无人机相关的人为因素问题与与大型无人机相关的人为因素问题有很大不同，主要是因为针对WSAR人员的小型无人机意味着操作员培训、传感器容量、自主能力和飞行时间的限制。PI的计划是为WSAR系统开发操作员界面和无人机自主性，允许没有RC驾驶技能的人使用在线或离线方法搜索区域。当在线工作时，PI将采用非飞行员操作员的视角，并设计自主性，允许在“增强虚拟”环境中工作的操作员“引导相机”，而不是驾驶无人机。在无人机视频信息被记录并用于离线信息检索和分析的情况下，PI将采用主动马赛克方法，将视频图像叠加在地形图上。PI将在项目的所有阶段采用强烈的以人为中心的方法，创建WSAR系统并对其进行评估，其中整合了人机交互、计算机视觉、控制和人工智能方面的研究人员的专业知识。用户研究将包括与WSAR人员的实地测试，对WSAR团队当前工作实践的调查，主动镶嵌对线下和在线搜索的有用性等。广泛影响：每年，许多人在徒步旅行、划船/皮划艇、滑雪、钓鱼等过程中迷路或陷入危险。每年，仅在犹他州，野外搜救就消耗了数千人时和数十万美元。从一个人失踪到WSAR人员找到遇难者之间的每一个小时，有效搜索半径都会增加大约3公里。在水中度过或在树林中迷路的每一个小时都会降低成功营救的可能性。便携式无人机具有适当的接口、自主性和以负担得起的价格进行传感器处理，应该可以减少从搜索人员到达现场到空中监视支持他们的努力之间所需的时间。这样的系统将增加成功救援的可能性。

Wilderness search and rescue (WSAR) is the task of finding and giving assistance to humans who are lost or injured in mountain, desert, lake, river, or other remote settings. Because of the vast distances involved in wilderness settings, searchers frequently depend on surveillance from helicopters and small airplanes. Although these resources are very useful for searchers, the have limitations: resources consume considerable cost, there can be delays between when the resources are needed and when they arrive, ground searchers and pilots must overcome communications barriers between them, and the aircraft may not be able to provide low level imagery because of flying restrictions associated with rugged terrain. The central hypothesis of this project is that mini (3-5 foot wing spans), fixed wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) can be used by WSAR personnel to efficiently find people in the wilderness. The human factors issues associated with small UAVs are much different than those associated with large UAVs, mostly because small UAVs for WSAR personnel imply limitations on operator training, sensor capacity, autonomy capability, and flight time. The PI's plan is to develop operator interfaces and UAV autonomy for WSAR systems that allow people without RC-piloting skills to search an area, using either online or offline approaches. When working online, the PI will adopt a non-pilot operator perspective and design autonomy to allow operators working in an "augmented virtuality" environment to "guide the camera" rather than fly the UAV. In situations where information from a UAV's video is to be recorded and used in offline information retrieval and analysis, the PI will pursue an active mosaic approach in which video images are overlaid on terrain maps. The PI will employ a strongly human-centered approach in all phases of the project, both for creating the WSAR systems and for evaluating them, in which expertise from researchers in human-robot interaction, computer vision, controls, and artificial intelligence is integrated. User studies will include field tests with WSAR personnel, investigation of current work practice in WSAR teams, usefulness of active mosaicing for offline and online searches, and so on.Broader Impacts: Each year, many people are lost or find themselves in jeopardy while hiking, boating/kayaking, skiing, fishing, etc. Each year, wilderness search and rescue consumes thousands of person-hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars in Utah alone. With each hour that passes between the time that a person is lost and WSAR people find the victim, the effective search radius grows by approximately 3km. Each hour spent in the water or lost in the woods decreases the likelihood of a successful rescue. A portable UAV with appropriate interfaces, autonomy, and sensor processing at an affordable price should decrease the amount of time required between when searchers arrive at a scene and the time when aerial surveillance is present to support their efforts. Such a system would increase the probability of successful rescue.