2016 IEEE 5th Global Conference on Consumer Electronics

Multi-UAV Tracking and Scanning Systems in

M2M Communication for Disaster Response
Maher Aljehani, Graduate Student Member, IEEE, and Masahiro Inoue, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract — Natural disasters (e.g. earthquake, tsunami, in M2M system. According to ETSI world class standards, in
and eruption) are unavoidable casualties in the history of any M2M architecture system must consists of three main
human being. In many incidents, people die due to lack of elements which are device, gateway, and server [4]. Figure 2
data such as the status of evacuation routes, pedestrians’ illustrates system architecture based on the ETSI standards.
traffic in the impacted area and real-time alert systems.
Employing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in this field of
research is so beneficial for multiple reasons. For instance,
UAV has a high-speed of covering areas, route's safety,
constructions' conditions and pedestrians' movements
aerially and without human interfering in real-time.

Keywords — UAV, Disaster Response, Scanning System,

Embedded System, M2M Communication, Data Analysis
I.
INTRODUCTION
Disasters like tsunami and earthquake destroy houses,
properties, and so on in the coastal and drifts them far away.
Figure 1 demonstrates the percentage of social loss caused by
Fig. 2. Proposed System
most of the natural disasters [1].

B.
Multi-UAV System

Fig. 1. Chart of People Killed by Natural Disasters
Japan learned lessons from disaster that occurred in 2011.
Usually, the extensive structural damage is suffered by
buildings, bridges, highways and other lifelines during
earthquakes [2].
The main goal of this research is how to make an alternative
map and evacuation routes in case of devastating earthquake.
Kusano and Inoue proposed a system called “Safety Route
Guidance System using Participatory Sensing” [3]. After
disaster, default map cannot be used due to the change of the
environment and the extreme destructions that occurred in the
area. Safety Route Guidance System has the capability to
provide an alternative map based on collecting sensing data
with G.P.S. and accelerometer from pedestrians' handsets.
Participatory sensing depends on the movements of
pedestrians, and that can confirm the route safety and provide
a full picture of the situations of the evacuation route.
II.
SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
A.
Proposed System
This system can generate evacuation maps autonomously
and individually after the earthquakes in short period by
taking the advantages of implementing multi-UAV flying in
the impacted area. Generally, UAV works as a M2M device
Integrating of multi-UAV into M2M system can save time
and cost whether for refugees or government. Recently UAV
becomes a low-cost entry device. It gives a significant growth
in the IoT networks and M2M system markets.
In proposed system, the responsibilities of scanning UAV
and tracking UAV are entirely different. More specifically,
tracking mission is for tracking pedestrians' movements and
recording the used routes. However, Scanning UAV mission
is for scanning the area and evaluate the status of the routes
and buildings status and so on. In this study, multi-UAV
worked as M2M devices, the microcontroller Raspberry Pi is
the gateway and it is responsible for collecting and sending
the data to the M2M server. In this system, Individuals can
also contribute to finding multiple safe routes by giving
coordinates to the locations that haven't been scanned or need
to be scanned again for more affirmation.
C.
UAV’s Modes
This system mainly has two main pillars, which are
programming by different platforms in different languages
and hardware configurations like embedding G.P.S. shield on
UAV board. In the Ground Station, Robot Operating System
(ROS) and OpenCV must be available to give access to image
processing and controlling third party robot (e.g. AR. Drone).
The tracking system in this research aimed to track human
on different algorithms autonomously and for generating
routes after disaster occurrence. UAV has four modes, which
are tracking mode, scanning mode, searching mode and
Return to Launch (RTL). The target can be any object (e.g.
particular color, face, human body, particle object) [5]. Figure
3 shows one example of the tracking process. After, trained
the feature of the laptop logo, control unit sends 15Hz~20Hz
signals to UAV to track the trained object autonomously.

978-1-5090-2333-2/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE


Fig. 3. Tracking System using OpenCV and ROS
III.
EXPERIMENTS
A.
Colored Evaluated Map
In disaster response, a colored evaluated map by using
M2M system can simply read by refugees and also help
enhance the evacuation procedures. After receiving data from
scanning and tracking UAVs, M2M system evaluates the area
and generate colored maps that consists of safe route as green
color and dangerous route as red color. Then, visualize the
area as a 3D colored map that can be opened by map Apps on
any smart device. Figure 4 demonstrates a colored map that
has been sent to the user’s smart device as KML file.
Basically, evaluation is processed in M2M server after
tracking multiple pedestrians and finishing scanning mode.
Fig. 4. 3D Colored Evaluated Map
B.
Time-line Evaluation
The Time-line of providing data evaluates the system
performance. The optimal time has to be in 5 minutes’ range.
The following formula and Figure 5 show the Time-line of
providing the data in this system.
TCost={ TTracking + [TScanning - TTracking] + TProcessing }
Fig. 5. Time-line of Providing the Data
2016 IEEE 5th Global Conference on Consumer Electronics
C. Data Acquisition and Recommended Route
After receiving a colored map, users could have another
option which is receiving recommend route based on their
location in the area. In this feature evacuation route will not
be based on the default map. It means that the generated route
can become across buildings or private properties. The visual
data and positioning data will be stored and analyzed on the
M2M server like a colored map process. Then, the data will
be sent as a HTTP link or KML file to the clients’ mobiles as
shown in Figure 6. Generated route will be provided by
embedded G.P.S. u-blox m6 module on one of the tracking
UAV. That route will be assigned as recommended
evacuation route since the safe of the route has been
confirmed by the administrator through UAV’s eye during
the tracking and scanning modes.
Fig. 6. Displaying Recommended Evacuation Route
IV.
CONCLUSION
This study used multi-UAV as end devices in M2M
communication system to track and provide visual data from
the disaster area. UAV proved its reliability to be trustful
M2M device since it cannot be affected by disasters affection.
In this study, Tracking UAVs track pedestrians however
Scanning UAVs scan the area. The tracking process
performance depends on the UAVs' capabilities and the
walking speed of the pedestrians. Refugees will receive
alternative routes or colored evaluated map based on real-
time analysis of impacted area after disaster occurrence. In
this system, Time-line of providing the data depends on the
(1) UAVs speed of tracking and scanning speed processes.
REFERENCES
[1]
Earthquake Data and statistics Data related to human and economic
losses from disasters that have occurred between 1980 and 2008, 2014.
[2]
Amr S. Elnashai, and Luigi Di, Sarno. “Fundamentals of Earthquake
Engineering,”, p. 34, 2008.
[3]
Kusano, S, and Inoue M. “Safety Route Guidance System using
Participatory Sensing,”2013 IEEE 2nd Global Conference Consumer
Electronics (GCCE)., pp. 363-364, 2013.
[4]
European Telecommunications Standards Institute, “ETSI TS 102 690
V1.1.1”, M2M Communications Functional Architecture, 2011.
[5]
Datong Chen and Jie Yang, “Online Learning of Region Confidences
for Object Tracking”, 2nd Joint IEEE International Workshop on
Visual Surveillance and Performance Evaluation of Tracking and
Surveillance., pp. 1-8, 2005.