Our groups objective came from the Carova fire department located at Carova Beach North Carolina. We were told they wanted to be able to have a UAV on the fire truck or at the fire station that would be able to give them a birds eye view of the location(or point them in the right direction) of a forest fire. The problem is many times they can see and smell smoke but they don’t have the ability to determine where it is coming from. There are no paved roads at Carova beach and most of the fire departments responsibility is for uninhabited land. Because of this a lot of time and resources can be wasted driving around looking for the location of the smoke. To meet the need of the Carova fire department, we are using a quad copter multi rotor helicopter. They are compact enough to fit on a fire truck for a minimal footprint and have a quick deployment time.
The quadcopter is also able to perform search and rescue missions when looking for lost persons. With the use of a thermal imaging camera the quad copter will be able to fly over an area with the thermal imaging camera and heat gradients are seen through a small screen on the ground. Objects that are warmer such as a an person will appear brighter then a tree or the ground. This will reduce the search time by magnifying where people are even though there may be dense brush.
These task do come with some challenges. Near the Carova fire department there is interference with cell towers that cause the quad copter to crash. We also have to be able to fly in windy conditions since emergencies don’t always happen during optimal weather conditions. Our team at ODU will need to come up with a way to be able to fly in these situations. This will challenge us but we hope for success with our wide range of disciplines. We are a group of engineering students that range from aerospace, mechanical, and electrical engineering.
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