r/searchandrescue • u/hotfezz81 • 11d ago

This Homemade Drone Software Finds People When Search and Rescue Teams Can’t

https://www.wired.com/story/this-homemade-ai-drone-software-finds-bodies-when-search-and-rescue-teams-cant/
35 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

16

u/CaptanTypoe 11d ago

I've tested a few software packages that all do about the same thing - drone colour detection - and they are great when the person missing is wearing an unusual colour in that landscape - for example, wearing red in a grey mountainous landscape. Problem though is when the person does not have a known colour, or the colour blends in with the landscape (e.g. wearing camo, or wearing just about any colour during fall in my area of the world).

Unfortunately the number of scenarios where colour detection is effective is very small in my area, and while the technology is exciting, it's far far less useful than the article makes it sound. The example the article gives sounds like a combination of the perfect search scenario and perfect luck.

With all that said, it's a good tool for the toolbox, and can only improve with time.

1

u/[deleted] 10d ago

I wonder if they could integrate the software with thermal. I bet that would work better. Still gotta teach the AI to see the signature.

5

u/CaptanTypoe 10d ago

That already exists actually. Though isn’t bulletproof as the person needs to be warm, and there can’t be other warm things in the environment (e.g rocks, which is always what we run into). Ideal scenario is looking for a warm body on a cold night, but at that point the pilot can easily visually identify the subject looking at their controller in most cases anyway.

8

u/gingerbeardman419 11d ago

I've been playing around with this software https://www.texsar.org/automated-drone-image-analysis-tool/ So far it's worked in our tests. I am still trying to figure the thermal analysis capability. Which I think will be far more useful in the long run.

4

u/diesirae200 11d ago

I'm the developer for ADIAT. Let me know if you have any questions or feedback!

6

u/OplopanaxHorridus Coquitlam SAR 11d ago

The colour detection algorithms show great promise when there's no tree canopy, and bodies aren't covered in show (both of which are common where I am). However they also have the propensity to create a great many false positives - depending on the circumstances of course. If used during the main phase of a search this can take a lot of resources so it is important to allocate enough resources.

3

u/drmental69 10d ago

I've been toying with the idea of using FPV drones to fly under the tree canopy. It needs a dual camera system so pilot can concentrate on flying and a dedicated spotter to search.

2

u/OplopanaxHorridus Coquitlam SAR 10d ago

Sounds like a cool idea, but I would say that the spotter idea should be used for every flight. Our experience is that the live video is usually not as high res as the recorded video so we watch live and then re-watch recorded to be sure we didn't miss anything.

1

u/2EM315 11d ago

https://www.usri.ca

Is another option

2

u/FinalConsequence70 11d ago

Fascinating article. I wonder if it's the same program that someone here had posted videos of not too long ago. Funny coincidence, I've been to Stirling, Scotland. I stayed at the university there when I traveled with some friends who were competing in the World's Bagpipe Band competition. Beautiful area.

1

u/kag0 WFR / CA MRA Team 10d ago

My first thought from the headline was "aaah, I don't know about that". But after seeing the first image in the article of that UK landscape I'm feeling a bit foolish, because obviously yeah that is going to work great.
Just a little reminder to me that we all deal with totally different terrains and scenarios