A 2-D Acoustic Source Localization System for Drones in Search and Rescue Missions

Abstract

Search and rescue missions still typically rely on teams of people tirelessly searching for victims. Advances in technology have seen the use of drones to help the rescuers in their search. These drones primarily use visual systems, but cost and visibility are major drawbacks with those systems. The system described in this paper attempts to resolve the localization problem for drones used in search and rescue operations by making use of acoustic source localization. The source location is estimated in terms of an azimuth estimation (the bearings or angle toward the source) as well as the distance. The proposed system is shown the promising results for both the azimuth and distance estimations.