Cooperative Multi-UAV System for Surveillance and Search&Rescue Operations Over a Mobile 5G Node

In this paper, we present the development of a multi-UAV system for operations of surveillance or search&rescue. The operation of this kind of systems has been limited in the past because of the dependency on the communications infrastructure. With the deployment of 5G cellular networks, new opportunities arise in the development of this field and its real-world applications. This paper includes the development of four different guidance algorithms to manage the whole team of UAVs during its search and rescue mission. The main functionalities implemented are the ones described in this paper: formation flight for an efficient sweep of the terrain, collision avoidance between other agents and possible environmental obstacles, cooperative target searching in order to minimize the time of the mission, and a cooperative target tracking that minimize losing the target and allows an increased accuracy.The developed UAV system has been successfully deployed and tested in an emulated search and tracking operation of both, a vehicle and a human, using a 5G network. The 5G network provided real-time communications with the ground control station, enabling the transmission of telemetry and high-resolution video from each UAV. A demonstration of the system was performed to a law enforcement entity involving three UAVs.