Designing an aerial robot for hover-and-stare surveillance

When disasters and crises arise visual information needs to be rapidly gathered and assessed in order to assist rescue workers and emergency personnel. Often such situations are life-threatening and people cannot safely obtain such information. Disasters in urban areas are particularly taxing. Structural collapse, damaged staircases and the loss communication infrastructures aggravate rescue efforts. Robots, equipped with camera, can be employed to visually capture situational awareness. As such, the focus of our work is designing a backpackable aerial robot that can hover-and-stare. Such a robot would ascend, peer through windows, and transmits video to an operator. This paper presents a backpackable tandem-rotor prototype that can carry a wireless camera