Integrated Wi-Fi and LoRa network on UAVs for localizing people during SAR operations

In distress and crisis situations, the way how the rescuers answer is extremely important and critical. Rapidity on which Search and Rescue (SAR) operations are deployed and executed may have a high impact on the physical and psychological health of the user in distress. The proposed tool aim in localizing users in areas where any wired or wireless access communication has been interrupted or not working properly like earthquakes areas or mountains where no cellular signal are available. The proposed system is deployed on top of a drone capable to detect Wi-Fi beacons generated by distressed user's device Wi-Fi interface. Beacons acquired are analyzed through the Complex Event Processor and after being aggregated with the acquired GPS position sent to the ground station using LoRa radio transmission protocol. The system has been tested in a woods scenario for simulating the absence of the mobile cellular signal and validating the proposed tracking approach.