Human Body Detection and Geolocalization for UAV Search and Rescue Missions Using Color and Thermal Imagery

Recent advances in the field of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) make flying robots suitable platforms for carrying sensors and computer systems capable of performing advanced tasks. This paper presents a technique which allows detecting humans at a high frame rate on standard hardware onboard an autonomous UAV in a real-world outdoor environment using thermal and color imagery. Detected human positions are geolocated and a map of points of interest is built. Such a saliency map can, for example, be used to plan medical supply delivery during a disaster relief effort. The technique has been implemented and tested on-board the UAVTech¹ autonomous unmanned helicopter platform as a part of a complete autonomous mission. The results of flight- tests are presented and performance and limitations of the technique are discussed.