A Technical-Thematic Civil Protection Exercise in Italy: UAS Fleets-Based Activities Supporting Emergency Response in Seismic Scenarios

Abstract

In October 2023, during the Italian Civil Protection Week, in Eastern Lombardy (Italy) a large technical-thematic seismic exercise called “EXE.Lomb.Est 2023” was organized, with the goal of testing the response of the Regional Civil Protection system for post-earthquake damage assessment activities. Within this context, the use of an unmanned aerial system (UAS), in particular the deployment of multi-rotors UAS teams, has been tested as support for the rapid mapping of a large area involving the simultaneous participation of different Italian institutions with UAS units. Coordinated flight planning design, safety issues, coordination and communication procedures, data management and delivery of the results are some of the main aspects investigated and presented in this work.

Keywords

• civil protection
• multi-rotor unmanned aerial system (UAS)
• rapid mapping
• coordinated flight strategy
• tactical and strategical risk mitigations