Cavalry to the rescue: Drones fleet to help rescuers operations over disasters scenarios

This paper proposes a drone based solution to help on the search and rescue activities over disaster scenarios. The proposed architecture is composed of specialized drones to accomplish specific tasks and an internal modules organization to grant they will be able to accomplish their objectives. Among the tasks we believe drones could excel performing over disaster scenarios we can highlight: providing a temporary communication structure, creating up-to-date maps of the affected region and searching for hot spots where the rescue teams may have more chances of finding victims. For example, drones may be equipped with infrared cameras, deep penetration radars, or even detect the radio signal from portable devices. All these activities require specific competences, and thus more than one kind of drone and sensor equipment are required to accomplish all of them. This drone based fleet, to be efficient and useful in the terrain needs to be autonomous and capable of self-organization.