Smartphone location technology for mountain rescue
What is Rescue Drone?
Developed at CEA-Leti, the RESCUE DRONE technology offers an additional tool for mountain rescuers to help them locate avalanche victims. It can locate a smartphone using the third dimension via a drone flying over the search area.
Based on an antenna specifically designed to precisely estimate the direction of reception of a radio signal, it can be deployed outside of mobile network coverage. In snowy environments, the solution aims to supplement existing resources (RECCO, avalanche rescue dogs) for locating victims not equipped with avalanche beacon.
An RF beamforming circuit detects the radio signal from the victim's smartphone and uses a microprocessor to estimate its angle of arrival and range. As the drone moves closer to the victim, the precision of the location improves.
Applications
- Searching for avalanche victims
- Searching for people in difficulty
What's new?
What's next?
CEA-Leti's experts are aiming for an initial flight demonstration using Bluetooth by 2021.
A second scenario being considered involves locating a smartphone with no network coverage in normal operation, i.e. with at least one GSM communication mode activated.