THE JOINT RESEARCH PROJECT ANKOMMEN – EXPLORATION USING AUTOMATED UAV AND UGV

Abstract

Disasters such as floods, large fires, landslides, avalanches, or forest fires are often inevitable and cannot be fully prevented, but their impact can be minimized with sound disaster management strategies aided by the latest technological advancements. A key factor affecting these strategies is the time, where any delay can result in dramatic consequences and potentially human losses. Therefore, a quick situation report of the disaster is highly demanded, but still not an easy task because - in most cases - a priori known spatial information like map data or geo-databases, are outdated. In addition, visual and geometric information on the current situation is needed to help rescue teams and first responders. From this point of view, we came up to the main idea of the joint research project ANKommEn and its extension ANKommEn 2 (german acronym for Automated Navigation and Communication for Exploration). The project idea embodies an exploratory investigation to be smart in providing correct and timely geodata that can help in emergency cases; especially in support decision making in emergency risk management. For this purpose, automated unmanned systems, both ground (UGV) and airborne (UAV), are being developed to provide up-to-date information of rescue scenarios.