Optimization of helicopter and UAV coordinated SAR time.

Area of Science:

• Aerospace Engineering
• Operations Research
• Emergency Management

Background:

• Coordinated search-and-rescue (SAR) operations are critical for saving lives.
• Optimizing time in air rescue is essential for follow-up activities.
• Current methods face challenges in efficient UAV deployment and airspace management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To optimize helicopter-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) coordinated search-and-rescue (SAR) time.
• To develop a model for remote takeoff and landing (TAL) site selection for UAVs.
• To improve SAR efficiency and reduce operational costs in time-critical missions.

Main Methods:

• Developed a remote TAL site selection model for UAVs operating from helicopters.
• Introduced a weighted distance matrix for an improved UAV task allocation model to avoid airspace conflicts.
• Constructed a multi-UAV parallel searching optimization model considering helicopter performance.

Main Results:

• The improved model significantly increased SAR efficiency across various numbers of SAR points.
• Site selection costs were reduced by 56.08% for 50 SAR points.
• SAR efficiency improved by 37.3%, demonstrating adaptability to large-scale SAR tasks.

Conclusions:

• The proposed helicopter-UAV coordinated SAR model enhances operational efficiency and reduces costs.
• The method is effective for both small and large-scale SAR missions.
• This research provides valuable references for future helicopter-UAV coordinated SAR studies.