Application of UAV in emergency communication

In an emergency situation, communication is critical to the safety of first-aid personnel and the effective execution of emergency plans. However, in an emergency, the communication facilities are likely to be damaged:

1. Extreme weather, such as the 2015 New Zealand Hunter District flood, may have affected the communication infrastructure;

2. The area where the emergency occurs is usually complex and has insufficient infrastructure, making it difficult to communicate directly with emergency personnel, such as extinguishing jungle fires in remote areas, conducting search and rescue operations, or hunting operations;

3. The emergency event itself will cause the traffic to skyrocket, making the existing system unable to cope with a large number of service demands.

Recently, these situations have occurred in Australia or overseas, so what we need is not only theoretical exercises, but practical and feasible emergency planning.

In any of the above emergency situations, the capacity of the communication system needs to be enhanced to alleviate the problem of poor communication and communication coverage. A common and effective method is to use portable mobile repeaters.

However, how to bring these devices to the corresponding location within a reasonable time is a big problem. When flooding occurs, it is impossible to enter the disaster area; similarly, when a fire occurs in the mountain area, the technical communication team cannot enter the disaster area. If fuel or batteries need to be delivered to multiple locations in an area, how to power these locations is also a concern. There may be a situation during emergency response in a city, where the equipment needs to be separated from ground activities, such as in the event of civil unrest or mass casualties.

In these and other situations, a drone that can be used as a radio communication platform becomes a viable solution. The drone can enter the designated area from a remote location, can stay in this area for a few hours at a time, provide the required services for the area, and can easily fly to another location without the need for more emergency personnel or support teams to enter Dangerous zone.

There is a drone on the market that can fly continuously for 12 to 20 hours, and can fly into an emergency area under the operation of an automatic driving control instrument. This kind of UAV not only has a monitoring function, but also can carry materials. In this way, a suitable UAV can be used to transport digital radio repeaters. Because power can be provided by onboard power generation, the size and weight of the battery can be reduced as much as possible, thereby maximizing flight time.

Today, drones are not only used to carry high-power radio equipment, but can also be quickly converted between different tasks; due to the use of detachable and interchangeable transporters, if the task content needs to be changed, the drone can easily Replace the load. For example, the work tasks of drones can be converted from providing daytime radio support to remote fire areas to providing night-line infrared surveillance.

The UAV's load area is also equipped with a high-resolution CAD gimbal camera. Compared with expensive manned operations, the advantages of drones are low cost and flexible tasks.

A recent test in southern New South Wales used a drone platform to test a VHF P25 digital repeater for nearly an hour. In the test, the drone maintained a 400-foot flying height, the signal range of the mobile radio equipment was extended beyond the line of sight, and it successfully crossed terrain obstacles. For example, in cooperation with the Civil Aviation Safety Administration (CASA), the height of the test flight can be increased to 1,000 feet or more, which can extend the radio coverage to more than 70 kilometers without being limited by the functions of mobile radio.

The UAV can also be equipped with digital communication equipment, such as the high-bandwidth IP grid equipment being tested, which can not only provide voice communication, but also provide video and large data volume IP traffic. Because drones have a variety of carrying capabilities, different carrying materials can be quickly deployed to meet changing needs.

Unmanned aerial vehicles can quickly provide the required materials and emergency communications in an unmanned manner, which can ensure the safety of communications and personnel safety in emergency situations. Unmanned aerial vehicles can easily replace the load, which enhances the ability of the unmanned aerial vehicles to respond quickly in an ever-changing emergency environment.