Predictive Interfaces to Support Maritime Search and Rescue Operations with Drone Swarms

Alsen, Jonas Grann ; Nielsen, Rasmus Egholm ; Boisen, Magnus Tolderlund

4. term

Software, Master

2021

2021-06-08

140 pages

This project is a continuation of a 9th semester project, where a multi-UAV interface was created to assist in maritime search and rescue efforts. As the current search process of people in waterways is slow and expensive, an alternative process is presented where the search helicopter is replaced by a swarm of UAVs, reducing the search time and cost. Existing interfaces and research in the field are analyzed, and their findings suggest that predictive elements can positively influence workload and situational awareness. This field is still in its infancy and therefore could benefit from research that attempts to develop interfaces to support emergency personnel and learn from the use of these interfaces to inform the design of more effective SAR technology. Our work focuses on the design of the interface including the information elements as well as predictive elements that might support the Operations Manager in their role. A demo system is implemented as well to simulate different rescue scenarios during the study. User studies were conducted on several experts in the field to evaluate the interface and the predictive elements. Users preferred having the predictive elements to assist them in drawing the search area, but the results suggest that none of the predictive elements were the best and could be further improved. Overall the experts were positive about the simulated scenarios and the interface. Feedback from the experts gave future work that should be considered in such interfaces. The findings concludes that further research should be conducted on predictive elements for SAR interfaces.

HCI ; UAV ; drone ; predictive ; swarm ; interfaces ; SAR

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