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TEKEVER
Fixed-Wing UAV Systems: Modular VTOL, Long-Range Maritime UAV, Tactical ISR UAS
Platinum Partner
Ascent AeroSystems
Compact, American-Made, All-Weather Drones Designed To Fly When Others Can’t, No Matter The Mission
Platinum Partner
Volatus Aerospace
Drone Technology Supplier & Drone Service Provider for Public Safety, Transportation & Training
Platinum Partner
Altus LSA
Innovative Turnkey UAS Solutions for Mission-Critical Civilian & Defense Applications
Gold Partner
Austars Model
Advanced VTOL & Fixed-Wing UAVs | State-Of-The-Art Technologies for Unmanned & Autonomous Aircraft
Gold Partner
Beyond Vision
Fully Autonomous Multirotor Drones & Hybrid VTOL UAVs With AI Capabilities
Gold Partner
Edge Autonomy
Long-Endurance Fixed-Wing & Hybrid VTOL UAVs | UAV Payload Camera Systems | Power Systems
Gold Partner
Performance Drone Works (PDW)
High-Performance Autonomous Drones for Mission-Critical Civilian & Military Applications
Gold Partner
Xer Technologies
Heavy-Duty, Heavy Payload Drones for Industrial Inspections, Public Safety and Search & Rescue
Gold Partner
Cannon Dynamics
Customizable, Long-Range Fixed-Wing Drones - Twin-Wing Design Heavy Lifting Drones
Gold Partner
H3 Dynamics
Enablers of Long-Range Hydrogen Electric Flight | Hydrogen Solutions for UAVs; Lightweight PEM Fuel Cells & Mobile Hydrogen Refueling Stations
Gold Partner
Arctic Horizons
Cutting-Edge Unmanned Aerial Systems & Counter-Drone Technologies for Government & Defense Applications
Silver Partner
Alpha Unmanned Systems
Helicopter UAVs: Rotary Wing Drones for Maritime, Naval & Security Operations | UAS GCS
Silver Partner
T-DRONES
Industrial Multirotor Drones, Long-Endurance Fixed Wing VTOL UAVs, & High-Energy-Density Li-ion Batteries
Silver Partner
DeltaQuad
Hybrid VTOL Fixed Wing UAV for Autonomous Mapping, Surveillance, Inspection and VTOL Cargo Applications
Silver Partner
SwissDrones
Long-Range Autonomous Helicopter Drone for Inspections, Surveillance, Search & Rescue, and Monitoring
Silver Partner
CHC Navigation
GNSS Positioning & Navigation Systems, Mobile Mapping UAV LiDAR & Unmanned Surface Vehicles
Silver Partner
Acecore Technologies
Professional Drones, Quadcopters, Multirotors & Hexacopters for Cinematography, Survey & Inspection
Silver Partner
Showcase your capabilities
If you design, build or supply Search and Rescue Drones, create a profile to showcase your capabilities on this page.
Products
Overview
Search and rescue (SAR) drones assist in the location of people in distress or potential danger, or vessels that may be lost at sea or unable to manoeuvre. SAR drones and lifeguard drones may be deployed in the aftermath of a disaster, or to search vast or difficult terrain such as wilderness and mountainous regions.
The use of SAR drones for search and rescue mission is typically much less costly than helicopters or manned aircraft, which can be more expensive to run and slower to deploy. Search and rescue UAVs are relatively quick and easy to deploy in situations when time is of the essence, and allow first responders to keep out of harm’s way. In addition to locating missing persons, they can also be used to identify potential hazards in the search area before a ground team is sent in.
Search and Rescue Drone Platforms
Search and rescue unmanned aerial vehicles; fixed-wing UAVs, quadcopters, multirotors and unmanned helicopters, have different advantages and disadvantages when carrying out search and rescue missions. Fixed-wing search and rescue UAVs can generally fly faster and operate at higher altitudes than search and rescue quadcopters and multirotors. Due to being more efficient, they can operate for longer and thus have greater range.
Multirotor UAVs and unmanned helicopters have vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capabilities and can be launched from a much more restricted area, with no need for a runway or launch mechanism such as a catapult. Multirotor SAR drones are more manoeuvrable than fixed-wing platforms, and can hover in place to provide a highly stable imaging platform.
Hybrid VTOL UAV platforms take off using rotors and then transition to forward flight. This gives hybrid VTOL search and rescue drones the small operational footprint advantages of a multirotor SAR drone, as well as the extended range and coverage of a fixed-wing search and rescue UAV.
SAR Drone Capabilities
Drones used in SAR environments may require some form of built-in sense-and-avoid capabilities, in order to reduce the risk of collisions with objects such as trees, power lines and helicopters. This is especially true of UAVs that operate autonomously, which may be required in mountainous or urban regions or other areas that may make it difficult to maintain radio links.
When operating in such regions, or in terrain or stretches of water that cover vast areas, SAR drones may also need to operate beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS).
Search and Rescue UAV Control and Payloads
Search and rescue UAVs may be controlled via a handheld ground control station on a device such as a mobile phone, laptop or tablet, or via a fixed operations centre. The drone control software may provide direct remote control, as well as waypoint setting and search area selection functionality in order for users to create exhaustive search patterns. Live feeds of the drone’s payloads may also be monitored via the software.
SAR drones may carry a variety of payloads, including thermal and visual cameras, mobile phone detection systems, and devices that can drop essential items such as radios, food and water, medicine and life preservers.
In addition to live video feeds, still imagery is also useful in search and rescue missions, as the resolution of RGB photography cameras is generally much higher than that of video cameras. Images can be sent back to the ground control station in order to create maps of the terrain that are based on up-to-the-minute intelligence. Maps created using precise geospatial analysis software can be integrated with algorithms that indicate high-probability search areas based on the target’s last known location and direction of travel.
