Demonstrations of combined small-UAV with satellite system for large-scale disaster

摘要

This paper describes overviews on two demonstration experiments of combined fixed-wing unmanned aircraft (UA) with satellite telecommunication systems for a large-scale disaster. The first demonstration experiment is for video image delivery of disaster area even immediately after the occurrence of damage. To understand the situation in disaster area, the camera mounted on a small-UA is used in this demonstration experiment. The small-UA can photograph the moving picture during the circling, and the pictures are delivered to non-isolated areas via ground station (GS) and satellite telecommunication system in an almost real time. The second demonstration is for providing temporal communication lines rapidly deployable to the isolated areas of disaster area until the recovery of ground infrastructures. To achieve temporal communication lines, small UA equipped with onboard transceiver (or repeater) is used to communicate with the GSs. The small UA-based wireless bridge system and satellite communication systems are serially concatenated to extend the network. This paper presents the successful results of these demonstrations and the effects of this combined system for large-scale disasters.