A Scenario for a Multi-UAV Mapping and Surveillance System in Emergency Response Applications

This work conceptualizes a system comprised of a swarm of cooperating Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and a mobile base station. The system is intended to support rescue units at major incidents, such as fires in industrial complexes. It shall autonomously map and then survey the mission site, aiding but not replacing the rescue units in navigation and detection tasks. After a short situation analysis of UAV use at the Dortmund Fire Department, the system concept is based on a requirements workshop conducted with domain professionals. It entails essential hard- and software components of the system, various roles for the human operators, and typical mission procedures. The paper closes with a brief venture into the state of the art of several relevant technologies.