A LoRa-Based Disaster Management System for Search and Rescue Mission

To avoid risking the lives of victims and rescue team personnel in the event of disasters like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, etc., Search and Rescue (SAR) robots are increasingly incorporated into the operation. One of the major challenges in integrating SAR robots into rescue operations is the potentially severely damaged infrastructure within the disaster site. A critical component of this is a functional communication system which is essential for exchanging real-time information between the robots in the field and the Base Station (BS). Given that there might be either limited coverage or a complete failure of standard communication systems in a severely affected disaster site, a novel disaster management system named Titan Disaster Management System (DMS), which is based on LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Networks) LoRa technology is proposed. Its development consists of three solutions, which are Titan coordination, communication, and navigation solutions. The Titan coordination solution based on a robot platoon configuration has been developed to assist the rescue team in establishing a BS within the disaster-affected area. The victims, the BS, and the SAR robots may all communicate with one another using the Titan communication system. For guiding the SAR robot through the devastated disaster scene, the Titan navigation solution named Fuzzy Inference System Vector Field Histogram (FISVFH) was developed. The different phases of the development of Titan DMS are discussed, and the results obtained from field tests are presented in this paper.