A Novel Mathematical Model to Design UAV Trajectory for Search and Rescue Operations in Disaster

Abstract

In mass casualty incidents, whether natural or human-made, Search and Rescue Operations (SAR)Search and Rescue Operations (SAR) have a critical role in humanitarian problems. Time and information are crucial in victims’ survival. The high success rate in SAR operations depends on achieving reliable data about the number of victims, the severity of the failure, access status, and location status, etc. as soon as possible. Nowadays, the technology of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) presents an opportunity to help the rescue teams with avoiding wasting time and accessing areas where searching by rescue teams are costly and impossible to go there. In this study, we design a mathematical modelMathematical model to get an optimal path planning to steer the UAVs based on the potential risk degree (PRD) of the candidate location in the affected area. The proposed model is inspired by the Travel Salesman Problem (TSP)Travel Salesman Problem (TSP) that selects the optimal tour giving priority to districts with high PRDs obtained using the concept of similarity measure in the spherical fuzzy environment, considering the power limitation of UAVs. The priority of candidate locations is evaluated by Jaccard, exponential, and square root cosine similarity measures. The applicability of the proposed model is demonstrated by applying it to an earthquake case. A sensitivity analysis is performed to approve the validity of the method.