Lockheed Martin: Swarm Operations and Autonomous Rescue

Discipline: Interdisciplinary

Advisor: Chung Yong Chan

When disaster strikes, a clock starts ticking. Search and rescue teams are often put in hazardous conditions that put responders at risk. Swarm Operations and Autonomous Rescue (SOAR) aims to serve as a transformative tool for emergency search and rescue response, by reducing search times and increasing the chances of locating survivors. Our three drone swarm utilizes on board cameras and sensors to search a field and send data back to its host, identifying personnel in the search radius. While typical SAR drones require manual piloting, our Lockheed Martin sponsored drones utilize dynamic task allocation and autonomous navigation to efficiently perform search and rescue operations. Using MAVLink, the drones maintain communication with one another and with a central ground station. Through MAVLink, the ground station tracks the status and progress of each drone in the swarm. Using WiFi communications, the central ground station receives real time livestream feed from each of the drone’s central cameras.

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