Identification of Mobile Terminal with Femtocell on Drone for Civil Protection Applications

In the last few years the interest in advanced methods for the identification of people missing in natural disaster scenarios has increased. The paper offers an innovative technique for the identification of a mobile terminal under the rubble by means of a series of measurements carried out by a femtocell positioned on a four-rotor UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), commonly named drone. This technique uses the Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) from the terminals under the rubble. The first tests show that the results are satisfactory, obtaining an error on the estimate of the position on average of about 2 meters.