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Towards Automated 3D Search Planning for Emergency Response Missions

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Abstract

Theability to efficiently plan and execute automated and precise search missions using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) during emergency response situations is imperative. Precise navigation between obstacles and time-efficient searching of 3D structures and buildings are essential for locating survivors and people in need in emergency response missions. In this work we address this challenging problem by proposing a unified search planning framework that automates the process of UAV-based search planning in 3D environments. Specifically, we propose a novel search planning framework which enables automated planning and execution of collision-free search trajectories in 3D by taking into account low-level mission constrains (e.g., the UAV dynamical and sensing model), mission objectives (e.g., the mission execution time and the UAV energy efficiency) and user-defined mission specifications (e.g., the 3D structures to be searched and minimum detection probability constraints). The capabilities and performance of the proposed approach are demonstrated through extensive simulated 3D search scenarios.

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The code is available at https://github.com/savvas-papaioannou/3dsearchplanning.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 739551 (KIOS CoE), by the European Union Civil Protection Call for proposals UCPM-2019-PP-AG grant agreement No 873240 (AIDERS) and from the Republic of Cyprus through the Directorate General for European Programmes, Coordination and Development.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, 1678, Cyprus

    Savvas Papaioannou & Panayiotis Kolios

  2. KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, 1678, Cyprus

    Theocharis Theocharides, Christos G. Panayiotou & Marios M. Polycarpou

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  1. Savvas Papaioannou
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  2. Panayiotis Kolios
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  4. Christos G. Panayiotou
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Correspondence to Savvas Papaioannou.

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Papaioannou, S., Kolios, P., Theocharides, T. et al. Towards Automated 3D Search Planning for Emergency Response Missions. J Intell Robot Syst 103, 2 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-021-01449-4

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