Abstract

When security or safety incidents occur, the response time and preparedness of emergency responders are essential to their success. With the help of technology these factors can be greatly improved on, eventually making the difference in critical situations. In recent times, aerial drones have emerged as a technology that excels at quickly gathering information in hard-to-reach places. The utilization of drones could be helpful for emergency responders to improve their response time and preparedness.

Task Assignment

The group of engineers at USN are tasked by KDA to develop a system to improve the response time and preparedness of emergency responders through autonomous drone technology. The task must be solved by designing a system based on the specific functional and technical requirements set by KDA, which are included in this document. Beyond the functional requirements set by KDA, the engineers are expected to deduce requirements of their own based on analysis of the stakeholders’ needs. The outcome of the project should be a functioning prototype of the system, a practical demonstration / field test, and a bachelor’s thesis comprehensively detailing system design, development processes, performance evaluations and other criteria required by USN.

Requirements by KDA

Functional Requirements

  • The system should be able to dispatch drones that autonomously move to specific locations in their vicinity.
  • The drones should be able to record and live stream video from their destination.
  • The drones should be able to take off from and land on drone dispensers.
  • The drone dispensers should be able to house the drones to protect them from the elements while idle.
  • The drone dispensers should be modular in such a way that they are easy to move to new locations.
  • The drone dispensers should supply a power management system that can charge the drone batteries.
  • The system should utilize a ground station which commands and monitors the dispatched drones via telemetry and live video feed.
  • The ground station should have the option to take manual control of the dispatched drones at will.

Technical Requirements

  • The system should be developed to function with the drone model “ModalAI Starling 2 Max Outdoor GPS-denied Development Drone”.
  • The drone dispensers should provide full functionality regardless of weather conditions.

Methodology

The group of engineers are specialized in different fields of engineering, and will undertake the task using the following methodology:

  • Systems Engineering: Develop the architecture for the drones, drone dispenser and ground station, focusing on scalability, reliability and ease of use. Deduce requirements based on customer needs and stakeholder requirements.
  • Mechanical Engineering: Select appropriate materials, design mechanisms and integrate sensors and actuators. Follow necessary standards and ensure the system can withstand expected loads. Conduct structural analysis.
  • Electrical Engineering: Select sensors and actuators, develop a power management system, develop battery monitoring system.
  • Computer Engineering: Develop drone autonomy application for command, control and monitoring. Set up networks to facilitate transfer of telemetry and live video feed. Select suitable software for system development and testing.
  • Testing and Validation: Conduct simulations and calculations, perform tests to evaluate the system performance, reliability and effectiveness in various scenarios.

Scalability

In addition to the requirements by KDA, the following points are desired as options to up-scale the task if time allows it:

  • Utilize artificial intelligence features like language learning models, object detection and machine learning to enhance the human-computer-interface (HCI) between the ground station and the drones, tracking of objects-of-interest at the drone’s destination and provide analysis of the situation based on the video feed at the destination.
  • Support multiple different drone types.
  • Modify the drone to make it weather resistant.
  • Add a weather station to the drone dispenser to monitor local weather conditions.
  • Implement swarm technology using hierarchy structure. Optimizing for optimal situation aspects and overview.
  • Integrate the system with other surveillance systems.
  • Fire suppression system for drone dispenser.
  • Add shielding against Electromagnetic Interference.