NOAA Aerielle SONAR UAS

This proposed concept is a direct response to NOAA Topic 9.4.01, “Unmanned Aircraft System: Rapid Response for Natural Disaster” and will develop a Hybrid Unmanned Air System (UAS) called “Aerielle” equipped with a Humminbird SONAR imaging system that is commonly used by first responders. Aerielle will perform currently developed disaster response missions for UAS and additional under water search, recovery, and mapping missions performed by manned and unmanned surface craft with sonar. The interest to fully exploit the capabilities of unmanned aerial systems during natural disaster events by federal, state, and local organizations utilizing current sensors and platforms has identified the need for a next generation UAS capable of assisting in events of assessing situations and quick disaster response relief. Based on participation during many natural disaster events, Hydronalix has identified the need for a next generation UAS platform capable of performing advanced data collection, automatic victim recognition and data collaboration. The focus areas are: feasibility of adding acoustic instrumentation to a current UAS platform to perform sonar scanning of underwater structures for hazardous debris identification, automatic victim recognition in challenging landscapes, and near-real time collaboration utilizing cloud storage and mobile app development while evaluating current technology and mission needs.