first thing to test would be the GPS return to start point mode. See how well it lands itself. With that all you need to do is short training flights to do take-offs, simple maneuvers and camera pointing (which is why I like the real-time video streaming).. When it's time to come back just kill the link and it should come back on its own

Thanks for the clarification on range for the DJI ... 300 yards is a lot better than 300 feet.

Another drawback is that the copters are really only useful in calm stable air ... Definitely not storms, strong winds, and night conditions (needs low light camera). So that weather limitation is significant. But the DJI looks to be very portable and could be launched from whatever position a SAR team member was located. This could really make searches of off- trail locations an easier proposition.

I like the idea of overflights with an HD camera a lot. As in ... Miles of video footage. That requires a different type of drone. But the videos could be sent to observers in their homes for scanning. So this type of crowdsourcing has excellent potential.

Pete

You wanna outsource any of your work? Maybe we can work something out that is, um, mutually beneficial???

My primary interest in drones is not SAR drones. But this thread did lead me to think about the value of doing a better SAR drone. The main drawback that I see to such work is that the SAR drone needs to be up in the air for a long time ... A long loiter time over the rescue area. Hence it should use an engine running on combustible fuel. That is OK from a tech standpoint. But any drone can crash. So the real hangup is that if an SAR drone goes down, it should not start a fire. If the drone crashes and causes a forest fire, that is a counterproductive outcome ... To say the least. This concern is not a major one, but it can't be ignored.

On the positive side ... The drone could be equipped with various sensors - making it pretty useful to the SAR team.

I really do like the idea of collecting a lot of HD video footage and then passing it to an "observer team" to scan very carefully. That really would add extra eyes and brains to the search team, without needing to put extra people on foot on the ground.

We should keep thinking about this.

Pete

Interesting discussion.

I don't pretend to be a SAR guy, but general crowdsourcing strikes me as highly dubious. It would take a high degree of on-the-ground familiarity with the type of terrain, plus typical survival behaviours, to interpret aerial photos or video footage in an effective way. The observer needs to have a practised intuition for filtering out the normal and homing in on what looks out of place.

For example, I would be useless looking at swamp, jungle, desert, and coastal rainforest; but better with aspen parkland, boreal forest, or the Northern Rockies.

There are also a lot of terrains where seasonal snowfall, extremely spiky terrain, or the sheer density of vegetation changes everything. Shelters of natural materials are perfectly camouflaged in some situations. An on-the-ground searcher could almost trip over them before they can be seen.

It may be that, in time, machine algorithms will be more effective in spotting anomalies than human observers. This is comforting, I suppose, as the machines love us for giving them something to do (other than plot world domination).

My 2c.

If someone could develop a chemical sensor as sensitive as a canine's that could be put on a drone along with the video. Find a smell that's "familiar" and follow it. Better if you can do that at a height with better lne-of-sight and able to skim above the brush and then immediately twist 180 degrees when the smell is lost. just a wild out-of-the-box thought. It's early, time for coffee -- there's a great smell, I wonder how far away a dog can smell coffee...

Be sure and equip that drone with a small keg of brandy...

Hikermor ...
It's interesting that you say that.

I was just thinking overnight about the following question. I will post it as a separate thread. If a small rescue drone could drop a light package to a victim ( package maybe weighting 2 pounds) , what should be in the package? There are probably a variety of answers to that question, and no perfect response. The immediate thing that occurred to me is that the package should contain an emergency transponder so the victim can be located again. Other than that ... I am open to suggestions. Two pound is not much wright, so the choices are hard.

Also, Doug's response is probably true. Crowdsourcing to random people probably isn't very effective. But if crowdsourcing was done to people living in the same region and terrain as the victim, that might produce better results.

Pete

The load will vary with conditions. In AZ in the summer, you will want water - lots of water. two pounds is only about a quart, which will not be enough, although way better than nothing. Some means of two way comms would be useful, so that return trips could supply pertinent supplies. Very challenging topic.

Don't expect your victim to be signaling, or really doing much of anything,at least if my experience is representative. Probably the victim is relatively or completely inexperienced, likely either dehydrated (maybe even thirsty), confused, disoriented, or injured/impaired in many possible ways. They are likely to be inert, and very likely lying beneath whatever cover the area affords....

I find this thread interesting, because, frankly, it could be pertinent to me. I am definitely not as young as I used to be, and my range is increasingly limited. But I could do a reasonably competent job of watching a screen, especially in areas I know fairly well. There are lots of geezers like me out there who would form a fairly effective resource.

No need for the world to sit around waiting for me. The Army has developed this cool little RQ-11 drone that looks quite good for searching remote areas. It is hand launched ... You just start it and throw it by hand. Brilliant!

http://www.avinc.com/uas/small_uas/raven/

The only drawback is that I don't know what these things cost. But SAR teams could get one of these pretty quickly if their budgets allowed for it. As an added tool it would be very useful.

Hikermor: very good point about including two-way comms in a package dropped to the ground. Also, it's a good thought that the victim could be in bad shape and might not be able to do very much.

One possible solution to this is to use a two-drone rescue system. The initial drone is just a small aircraft with a camera. The follow-up drone is launched after the victim is found. The second drone is a heavier "cargo drone" that drops a 10-15 pound package. This is efficient because the cargo drone does not have to fly a long search route ... The target of the drop is already located.

Pete