Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have a huge potential to offer people a secure environment and services for epidemic prevention. The scientists at Incheon National University have taken advantage of this potential to develop a cooperative infrastructure for AI-assisted aerial and ground operations using UAVs and mobile robots. This infrastructure can help smart cities with surveillance and anti-epidemic measures.
Recently, there has been a lot of interest in mobile robots and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), mainly because of the enormous benefits that these technologies could bring us. UAVs, or drones and mobile robots, are anticipated to efficiently and safely provide a variety of services in smart cities, including surveillance and disease control, with the rise of 5G technology. It is now widely accepted that robots can be used in a variety of settings to carry out tasks like surveillance and rescue missions. However, up until this point, each of these operations has operated independently of the others, frequently in tandem. We need to use both UAVs and mobile robots together so that they can help each other out and reach their full potential.
To achieve this, a group of scientists from Incheon National University in South Korea, under the direction of Associate Professor Hyunbum Kim, have created a cooperative infrastructure for mobile robots and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that uses artificial intelligence (AI). The researchers describe the entire framework that can use UAVs and mobile robots in public and private areas for multiple operations like patrolling, accident detection and rescue, and epidemic prevention in a paper that was published in volume 36, issue 3 of IEEE Network on July 13, 2022. As stated by Dr. Kim, “It is crucial to consider surveillance along with the unprecedented epidemic spread of COVID-19. This is why we focused on aerial-ground surveillance and epidemic prevention when designing the next-generation system, which will be supported by smart mobile robots and UAVs.
A public area subsystem and a private area subsystem make up the system that the team came up with. A Centralized Administrator Center is a component of both systems (CAC). Several Unified Rendezvous Stations (URSs) that are located in public spaces are connected to the CAC. The unmanned aerial vehicles and mobile robots exchange data and receive supplies at these URSs. For the purpose of recharging airborne docking unmanned aerial vehicles, mobile robots are also fitted with charging stations. The public system aims to patrol public spaces, identify accidents and disasters, offer aid, and carry out activities that prevent epidemics, such as transporting medical supplies. Through the private system, medical supplies and screening tests can be sent to homes quickly.
But how will privacy fare under such scrutiny? Dr. Kim allayes fears by saying, “A key consideration for any surveillance system is privacy. As a result, we have developed various privacy settings for various systems. There are restricted areas for the public system that only authorized public unmanned aerial vehicles are allowed to access. There are permanent private zones in the private system that only authorized UAVs may enter in an emergency and temporary access zones that only authorized unmanned aerial vehicles may enter with written consent from the owners. ”
The ability of this infrastructure to enhance people’s lives has the authors feeling upbeat. The system is capable of a wide range of services, including spotting and preventing potential acts of terror in public areas as well as spotting and putting out fires in private residences. Two truly are better than one, and we look forward to a bright future filled with cooperation!
