When Typhoon Haiyan attacked Southeast Asia in 2013, rescuers brought drones to help areas trapped by rain and strong winds.
Typhoon Haiyan is one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded. It has claimed more than 6,000 lives and destroyed a large number of roads, making it impossible for rescuers to reach remote areas.
In this way, some organizations have begun to use drones to survey terrain. The images they took helped rescuers locate the lost people and created 2D and 3D maps to help group leaders understand how difficult it is to enter the area.
"One of the big problems we face is the need to get an image that can be viewed." Kate Chapman, executive director of the open source map project Humanitarian OpenStreetMap, said at the Southwestern South Arts Festival, "The drone can be very Take photos at a low cost."
Typhoon Haiyan became a landmark event for UAV applications in disaster assistance: because it used large-scale drones for the first time to help locate affected people and map high-risk regional maps.
So far, a variety of drones have appeared on the market, some are flying toys, some are high-tech monitoring equipment, and some are unmanned aircraft equipped with weapons. According to data from market research firm Frost and Sullivan, in 2014, the global consumer version of drones sold an average of 200,000 units per month, a figure that is expected to double this year. However, more and more relief organizations see drones as a tool that can solve their tough challenges.
Since the typhoon Haiyan, rescue organizations have begun deploying drones to rescue other areas affected by natural disasters, including the 6.1-magnitude earthquake that China suffered in August last year and the typhoon Ruby attack in Southeast Asia last December.
"When people see the words 'UAV', they may immediately think of killing robots, but that's not the case," said Patrick Meier, director of social innovation at the Qatar Foundation's computational research organization.
Organizations around the world are exploring other uses for drones. For example, Kenya is using drones to help contain criminals to kill rhinos and elephants. The country's La Fondation Bundi has built a fleet of cargo transport drones and plans to transport medical supplies to remote villages by 2020. In addition, the Syria Airlift project is also designed to use drones to deliver food and medicine to war-torn people.
Currently, drones are also being tested to locate bombs and mines left over from war. According to data released by the United Nations, unexploded ordnance will take 20,000 lives each year, most of them children. A total of more than 100 million mines are still buried underground in the world. It takes 1000 years to clean them up according to the current speed of removal. It's a slow, very dangerous job, and the staff needs to use metal detectors, or trained dogs, or simply spy on the soil to find them.
A company called Arch Aerial is developing a drone system to help locate these unexploded bombs and mines. In the past year, the company has built a drone system with a lidar remote sensing system that creates a 3D map of the terrain without plant cover, which helps field workers identify possible presence. The location of the mine.
In the next six months, the company will begin testing its drone systems in Laos. During the Vietnam War, the United States threw nearly 20 million tons of heavy explosives into the area.
“We encountered great difficulties in removing these unexploded ordnance, and workers had to risk their lives to enter high-risk areas,†said Renna Baker, CEO of Arch Aerial.
While Arch Aerial is developing its own drones, many rescue organizations use drones from companies such as DJI and Parrot. Many state and federal agencies in the United States use drones developed by General Atomic Systems and Boeing to monitor forest fires and assess natural disaster losses such as hurricanes and earthquakes.
However, there are still many obstacles to prevent the widespread use of drones. For example, in some countries there is strict control over the use of drones. In addition, drone handling requires training and experience, especially in harsh weather. In addition, the weight carried on the unmanned fuselage cannot exceed its upper limit.
Cost is also a factor that hinders the widespread use of drones. The cost of a four-axis drone with a camera is about $500 (about RMB 3,101), and the cost of a heavy-duty drone with a Lidar sensor is at least $20,000 (about RMB 124,000). Humanitarian organizations may have the financial resources to buy them, but for the average consumer, the price is still too high.
In the practice of Typhoon Haiyan, rescuers and humanitarian organizations seem to be optimistic about the future of drones. They believe that drones can help in times of crisis in the next few years.
"This is a new field and it needs to be constantly explored because there are specific methods that we can implement," said Adam Rabinowitz, a professor at the University of Texas.
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