Cooperative Damage Inspection with Unmanned Surface Vehicle and Micro Unmanned Aerial Vehicle at Hurricane Wilma

On Oct 24, 2005, Hurricane Wilma made landfall at Cape Romano, Florida. Two days later, the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue (CRASAR) deployed an iSENSYS helicopter and an unmanned surface vehicle to survey damage in parts of Marco Island, 11 miles from landfall. Assistance was provided by the National Science Foundation's industry/university cooperative research center on safety security rescue technologies. The AEOS-1 USV was prototype built for environmental science studies. It was modified to carry a Sound Metric Dual frequency IDentification SONar (DIDSON). The DIDSON was able to show the state of underwater structures, schools of small fish swimming, and find the railings from the collapsed section of a pier. This work validates the concept of using USVs and UAVs together for disaster response, suggests missions, and priorities for autonomy. Besides damage inspection, USV-UAV teams can find safe lanes of sea travel and to detect hazardous materials spills. In addition to providing situation awareness, the UAV can serve as a wireless network relay. Inspection of damage to seawalls, docks, and bridges requires vision above the waterline as well as below poses a new type of Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM).