RISING USE OF UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES IN WATER RESCUE OPERATIONS: A NATIONWIDE STUDY FROM POLAND

This article describes its author’s State Fire Service Officer questionnaire results. The research topic is unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) usage during service in this formation. The State Fire Service’s statutory tasks are threats reconnaissance and rescue tasks during natural disasters. Some State Fire Service units are equipped with UAVs and use them to their full capabilities. Unmanned systems are increasingly employed by many institutions and the state. Unmanned aerial vehicles can be used in search and rescue operations, waste control, or environmental monitoring. The current possibilities of unmanned aviation are very extensive and often save lives. The numerous impacts of unmanned aviation during the COVID-19 pandemic began with their enormous potential and wide scope of operation. Recognition, effective monitoring and further development of UAVs have a significant impact on improving state security. Research results prove undoubtedly that UAV’s role in State Fire Service is beneficial, especially during missing person search and firefighting actions. Because of the cyclical character of crises in Poland, it is necessary to equip State Fire Service units with tools like UAVs to fight various threats.

The growing intensity of fire hazards is increasing the need for incorporating aerial vehicles including unmanned aerial vehicles, which are now becoming a valuable tool in the hands ofvarious state bodies and institutions, including the State Fire Service (SFS) in Poland, in supportingactivities aimed at saving human life, health or property. The article presents the characteristicsand purpose of the SFS and the range of tasks performed by it, as well as key problems in thisarea. Examples of the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in firefighting activities werealso presented. It was pointed out that improving the ability of SFS to carry out tasks should bea priority, especially in an era of cyclical threats arising from human activity or environmentalforces, and the continued growth of technology means that unmanned aerial vehicles can provideincreasing support. The purpose of the article was to present the scale and level of a fire threat andto indicate the potential of UAVs in combating it. The research was conducted on the exampleof a selected region. The article uses the case study method: 3 examples are presented to supportrescue operations using unmanned aerial vehicles. Descriptions of cases are supplemented byoperational conclusions and recommendations. It was assumed (research hypothesis) that thelarge-scale use of unmanned systems for search and rescue operations in the SFS would not onlyaffect the speed and effectiveness of the response, but also enhance the level of safety of the officersinvolved. The authors also emphasise the need of creating a new unit in the structures of theState Fire Service, which would deal exclusively with the implementation of tasks related to theprocessing, management, analysis and placement on the map of the necessary data on the hazards.This would make preventive measures more effective.e

The proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has driven the emergence of urban air mobility (UAM) as a solution to alleviate the increasing demand for UAVs applications in various domains. The concept of UAM envisions a future where UAVs play a pivotal role in short-distance transportation, delivery services, surveillance, emergency rescue, and more. However, the rapid growth of UAVs poses significant challenges arising from the need to ensure the safe coexistence of UAVs with other manned/unmanned aerial vehicles. To ensure the safe integration of UAVs into low-altitude urban airspace and support high-density on-demand mobility, this research focuses on handling the safety-centric challenges related to UAV collision risk assessment, obstacle avoidance, and conflict resolution in complex urban environments.
\nOne of the main challenges is the intrusion of UAVs into airport runways. Airports serve as critical hubs for civil aircraft takeoff and landing operations. However, the increasing presence of UAVs has raised concerns about intruding into airports, leading to flight delays and temporary runway closures. To quantify the potential interference of UAVs on civil aircraft, a collision-course based trajectory planning model is proposed to evaluate the collision risk between manned civil aircraft and intruding UAVs. In this risk assessment model, the trajectory of the intruding UAV is formulated using a collision-course concept, taking into account the limited trajectory information available about intruding UAVs. The planned trajectory of the UAVs is then used to predict its relative position concerning civil aircraft. To account for the possible disturbances of the relative distance, a stochastic position prediction model based on Brownian motion is developed. The collision risk is assessed based on this stochastic kinematic model, providing a quantitative measure of the potential collisions. The proposed model is validated through extensive simulations involving different UAV initial positions, position updates, and different sizes of collision zone tests, as well as comparative tests with the Monte-Carlo algorithm, demonstrating its robustness in assessing the collision risk of the airport restricted area. To facilitate the application, the model is finally used to develop a platform to generate runway heatmaps, accounting for airport runway risk distributions. 
\nAnother safety-centric challenge is ensuring autonomous obstacle avoidance and conflict resolution of UAVs. To enable UAV autonomous safe operations in uncontrolled urban low-altitude airspace, a comprehensive collision-free path planning framework is developed to address the avoidance of both static obstacles and dynamic threats. Firstly, to handle static obstacles, a novel algorithm of 3D voxel jump point research is introduced to generate a global reference path for UAV navigation to avoid static obstacles, particularly for a free flight at different altitudes. Additionally, to optimize the reference path for specific mission requirements, techniques such as trajectory de-diagonalization, reconstruction, and smoothness are proposed to reduce the risk of static collisions, shorten the fly range, and enable UAVs to negotiate turns more efficiently. Secondly, real-time conflict resolution actions based on the Markov decision process are developed to avoid local dynamic threats encountered along the optimized desired path. This allows the host UAV to dynamically adjust its course to a resolution trajectory while maintaining its planned speed without hovering to avoid the potential collision with the approaching intruders. By avoiding near mid-air collisions (NMAC) and preventing the UAV from hovering, the proposed method ensures the timely completion of UAV missions. Simulation results demonstrate that the developed method successfully achieves UAV autonomous global path planning and local real-time conflict resolution in complex urban low-altitude environments, thereby avoiding both static obstacles and dynamic threats. 
\nMoreover, to bridge the research gap of UAV hard conflict resolution in mitigating NMAC risks arising from local dynamic threats, a novel situational NMAC risk assessment approach is developed by integrating the conditional random field (CRF) algorithm with safety metrics and conflict resolution performance to facilitate UAV tiered aerial passage operations. To improve UAV operating environments in urban airspace, a concept of tiered aerial passages is first designed to provide a practical urban airspace planning scheme that addresses UAV heterogeneity and optimizes the utilization of urban airspace. For UAV tiered aerial passage operations, a situational NMAC risk assessment module coupled with a conflict resolution decision-making module is formulated, enabling the host UAV to evaluate and respond to real-time conflicts, ensuring avoidance of potential collisions. To assess NMAC risks, a general risk assessment model is proposed based on the CRF algorithm, considering UAV safety metrics and resolution performance. Then the overtaking, approaching head-on, and converging UAV encounters are analyzed, and situational risk potential scores are created using the Gaussian kernel function in the CRF algorithm, considering advisory, caution, and warning risk alert levels. To resolve conflict, acceptable, tolerable, and unacceptable scenarios are proposed to enhance the flexibility and personalization of the resolution decision-making. The proposed scheme is validated by simulating geometric encounter situations and comparative tests with the previous hard resolution technique. The results indicate that the proposed method outperforms UAV NMAC risk assessment and conflict resolution. Even in the most dangerous unacceptable resolution decision-making scenarios across three conflict encounters, the proposed algorithm achieves NMAC rates of 0.036, 0.070, and 0.043, which are lower than the corresponding NMAC rates associated with the hard resolution approach. Together with the acceptable and tolerable scenarios, the proposed negotiation resolution effectively tailors different risk requirements to accommodate diverse UAV missions. 
\nWith a primary focus on ensuring the safety of the UAM architecture, this research endeavors to assess UAV NMAC risks and efficiently manage potential conflicts. The proposed work are thoroughly validated to demonstrate their effectiveness in real-world scenarios. As a result, this study significantly contributes to the establishment of a robust UAM architecture, facilitating the realization of safe and reliable UAM.

Aim: The article presents a set of parameters and settings for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), which is crucial in the operational work of the fire brigade and its importance for the quality of the final material obtained from an RGB camera or a thermal imaging camera. Introduction: Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are more often and more boldly used by various uniformed formations, including pilots of the State Fire Service and Volunteer Fire Brigades. Currently, they are used to perform recognition of situations and coordination of activities with the use of RGB and thermal imaging cameras. There are also other applications of UAV, including firefighting, but at the moment they are only conceptual solutions, as they have not been tested during an actual firefighting operation. According to the authors, a drone is currently only a carrier of additional devices and its functionality during the operation depends largely on certainty and reliability of a given UAV structure, as well as on the type and quality of the elements and sensors mounted on it. Methodology: A review of literature and press reports, as well as the authors’ experience in working with UAVs and the results of their research were used to analyse the topic. Conclusions: Indicating a set of key parameters for the UAVs used by fire brigade users is only possible to define its application. Therefore, in this study, the authors presented the most common use of unmanned aerial vehicles, for which key parameters were indicated and the impact of these factors on the obtained results of drones was described. Due to the frequent neglect of camera operation and the importance of their parameters, the authors described the most frequently set parameters of photographs and their impact on the final result, which is of key importance for the usefulness of the collected material.

In 2022, the State Fire Service in the Siedlce district recorded 1,081 local threats, of which 83events involved the sorption of chemical and other substances, including petroleum substances,of which 59 involved events related to the possibility of penetration of petroleum substances fromasphalt into the ground. Taking into account the fact that the above-mentioned events may lead tosoil degradation and significant environmental pollution at a considerable distance from the site ofthe oil leak, an attempt was made to test the permeability of soil characterized by different intensityof fertilization with operating fluids used in vehicles and machines in laboratory conditions.The tests were performed in a laboratory using the modified Ostromecki field method. The soilcollected in the Siedlce district and fertilized with manure, artificial fertilizer, shredded straw andfallow soil was used for the analyses. Each soil was exposed to contact with gasoline or kerosene.The tested parameters were: permeability, permeability coefficient and capillary capacity.The analysis of results indicates that the tested soils are characterized by the following degreesof permeability according to the CZ classification. Święcickiego: soil fertilized with manurein contact with white spirit – LEVEL II; soil fertilized with manure in contact with kerosene– LEVEL II; soil fertilized with artificial fertilizer in contact with white spirit – LEVEL II; soilfertilized with artificial fertilizer in contact with kerosene - LEVEL II; soil fertilized with shreddedstraw in contact with white spirit – LEVEL II; soil fertilized with shredded straw in contact withkerosene - LEVEL II; fallow soil in contact with white spirit – LEVEL III; fallow soil in contactwith kerosene – LEVEL III.

The research process of developing recommendations for rural communities directly adjacent to metropolitan cities in the field of local flooding protection, especially retention fee was preceded by: analysis of secondary data in 100 communities in three Functional Urban Areas (Metropolitan Areas, MA) in Poland: Poznań MA, Wrocław MA and Łódź MA (assessment of flooding and urbanization), analysis of primary data in 18 rural communities immediately adjacent to the metropolitan centers: semi-structured telephone interviews (stormwater fee from the stakeholder perspective) and survey research (local floodings from the citizen perspectives). To illustrate the scale of the flooding problem in MAs, flood risk maps were used along with data from the State Fire Service on local threats, and for assessing the scale of suburbanization data obtained from Statistics Poland. Although residents confirmed their readiness to co-finance the activities supporting the development of water retention, local authorities were hesitant to introduce additional charges for the residents. Therefore, a better solution would be to set the fees already at the national level. However, communities should be given more power with regards to the distribution of collected funds which, in turn, should be allocated directly to the local programs for the enhancement of retention capacity in the local catchments.

Personnel and boat detection in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) imagery plays a crucial role in Open Water Search and Rescue Missions. The diverse perspectives and altitudes of UAV images often result in significant variations in the imagery’s appearance and dimensions of personnel and boats, and the false detections arising from water surface flares are acknowledged as a great challenge as well. Existing deep learning-based detection methods employ convolutional blocks with fixed kernel sizes to extract features from the imagery at a fixed spatial scale, which will lead to missed and false detections, and severely affect detection accuracy when there are substantial differences in the appearance and size of the target objects. In this paper, a spatial scale adaptive real-time object detection neural network, namely YoloOW, was proposed to tackle the challenge of personnel and boat detection amidst the diverse UAV imagery, which comprises a feature extractor, a feature enhancer, and a postprocessor. The OaohRep convolutional block was proposed as a pivotal component in constructing the YoloOW and applied to the feature extractor and the feature enhancer. Compared with general convolution blocks, the OaohRep convolution block can extract image features across a wide range of spatial scales, show better scale adaptability, and achieve faster detection speed due to its unique merged convolution layer design. OaohRepBi-PAN was proposed in the feature enhancer, which imitated the architecture of the classic algorithm SIFT and was successfully applied to deep learning models, showing better scale adaptability. A novel UAV detection box filter (UDBF) module was proposed in the postprocessor, which can effectively remove false detections caused by water surface flares. Experimental results demonstrate that our YoloOW model achieves 37.18% mAP on the SeaDronesSee dataset, surpassing the baseline by 8.43%. This notable improvement positions our model at the first of the leaderboard. The code will be available at https://github.com/Xjh-UCAS/YoloOW.

Subject and purpose of work: The purpose of this study is to assess the economic partnership between China and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It evaluates the economic policy since the cooperation in the region began, as the 17+1 process. The study evaluates the success and failure of China’s economic engagement in the 17 CEE countries and the Balkan region. This article explores how the relationship was made stronger in CEE countries for economic development. It looks at diplomatic ties, trade knot and economic initiatives, and it examines China’s relations with other CEE countries. The article aims to examine the geographical distribution of China’s economic influence on the CEE countries. Materials and methods: Content analysis is widely used as a comparative technique by the press, media, think tanks and communication. There are official statistics from a wide range of institutions (The China Observers in Central and Eastern Europe (CHOICE), the IMF, the OECD, the European Commission, the European Union, Statistics CEE countries and the European External Action Service). Results: The latest result indicates that Chinese economic policy is not achieving more success than the expected objectives in CEE countries. Conclusions: China’s economic impact on CEE countries is relatively small. Central and Eastern European countries are highly dependent on trade and investment relations with developed states, mainly EU members, while China accounts for a minor share.

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) search operations usually involve two consequent steps. The first one is the area of interest observation and data capturing with the aid of optoelectronic cameras, and the second one is the data transmission to the flight control center. Very often the position of the observed object is rather far from the area covered by a communication network formed by stationary general use base stations or a group of mobile base stations temporarily deployed for the search mission. This, as well as the constraints caused by surface features, may prevent the immediate transmission of the collected data. Therefore, after capturing the data, the UAV must find an appropriate position to perform a successful transfer of the information flow. Moreover, in case of manifold search mission, the UAV must be ready for an unplanned task correction, and therefore a landing and commencing a new flight are not acceptable. In this paper, UAV search mission planning is considered as a path optimization problem. The optimization goal is to set up the best conditions for data capturing and transmission under velocity and timing mission constraints. The optimization parameters are the UAV path and the data transmission plan; thus, the optimization problem is naturally decomposed into the internal problem of data transmission optimization and the external surveillance path planning. The first one is solved in an explicit way for a given path, and for the second one, the numerical solution in the deterministic case is found with the aid of the maximum principle. For the stochastic case, the approach is also outlined. The findings are illustrated by simulation results.

This paper describes functioning of the National Rescue and Firefighting System (NRFS), a structureof cooperation in which both the resources (people and equipment) of the State Fire Service (SFS)and the Volunteer Fire Service (VFS) are included. The aim of the study is to analyse interventions ofthe State Fire Service units in life-threatening conditions caused by cardiac causes in the years 2020–2022.Materials needed for the analysis were provided by the Bureau of Operational Planning. Theobservations cover the period 2020–2022 in the territory of Poland. In the study use was made ofdata from the Decision Support System of the State Fire Service (DSS SFS), in which all interventionsof firefighters have been archived. In the SFS databases for the period 2020–2022, firefighters weredispatched to 8085 life-threatening interventions for causes classified according to the observationobjective, and namely cardiovascular disorders. Those interventions accounted for 1.39% of allMedical Rescue Operations. In the Lesser Poland Province, the highest number of interventionsconcerned sudden cardiac arrest/ cardiopulmonary resuscitation (SCA/CPR) (69%). Calls forcollapsing were most frequent in the Varmian-Mazurian Province (54%). The use of specializedequipment held by NRFS entities provides a variety of possibilities to support medical rescue entities.The SFS is the main service cooperating with the National Medical Rescue System during MRO.A faster arrival of firefighters in the case of incidents classified as Isolated Medical EmergencyIncidents (IMEI) can contribute to improving the prognosis of the victims, mainly in the SCA/CPRcategory, owing to a possibility of performing rapid defibrillation.

In the years 2021–2022, a research team gathered at the OSP Niegoszowice unit (Małopolskie Voivodeship) conducted scientific research and tests related to the use of unmanned aerial vehicle systems in operational activities (exercises): fire services (state and voluntary units), police units, during search and rescue operations, disaster or crisis situations related to the protection of sensitive infrastructure at the airport. During this time, over 500 test flights were performed with multirotor aircraft from various manufacturers (including Autel Evo II Pro 6k, Autel Evo II 8k, DJI Mavic II Dual Enterprise, DJI Matrice 300, Yuneec H520). The analyzes and research carried out so far have shown that it is necessary to develop a mobile system for the implementation of a photogrammetric raid of vast areas using unmanned aerial vehicles, a system for creating orthophotos and data transmission using unmanned systems that perform automatic flights and operate systemically in a set of vehicles enabling take-off and landing on moving platforms. The system should enable battery charging or replacement, thus ensuring continuous operation, data transmission and archiving, and task management. It is necessary to implement satellite techniques and technologies (GNSS), geographic information systems (GIS) about terrain, numerical terrain models, to develop a database necessary for the construction of artificial (ANN) or simulated (SNN) neural networks enabling detection and detection (fires, people, objects). There are important properties and properties of unmanned systems, determining their use in Voluntary Fire Service, State Fire Service, police and airport services units.

This work demonstrates the application of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in a robotic Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) mission. An intuitive and natural control methodology that can be universally applied to different types of unmanned rotary wing aerial vehicles is developed. The control system encompasses a Windows computer system and a 3-Dimensional depth-sensing camera, in particular the Microsoft Kinect. Human hand gestures are captured, filtered and translated into flight manoeuvres for the UAV. The filtering involves the application of Fuzzy Logic Controllers, which incorporate the use of several different input variables for the control of either the velocity or position of the UAV. The developed system is implemented and tested on an AR Drone.

The Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to Assist Lifeguards Identifying, Preventing, and Rescuing: A Systematic Review.

The Burden of Macular Diseases in Central and Eastern Europe—Implications for Healthcare Systems

In this study, on the basis of the author’s scientific and professional experience, efforts have been made to present the results of research for the improvement of the methodology of hazard analysis and assessment, focusing attention on fire hazards and other local threats, in the fight against which fire protection units are involved, especially the national rescue and firefighting system. In the first chapter, the results of an analysis of selected statistical summaries for the years 2012-2022, based on data from incident records maintained by the National Fire Service Headquarters, are presented against the background of KSRG tasks. Attention was also paid to the role played by the entities of the national rescue and firefighting system in the national security system, seeking to answer the research questions posed on this occasion relating to: • location of KSRG in the structure of national security; • tasks performed by the entities of the system under consideration; • forces and resources available to KSRG units; • factors that determine the effectiveness of the tasks carried out by the system; • impact on the aforementioned efficiency of the analysis of statistical data of the events that have occurred. The second chapter is devoted to a discussion of the method of assessing the threat of municipalities and counties, seen as one of the main achievements in the scientific and research output of the author of this monograph. The method was developed as a tool to meet specific practical needs related to the planning of rescue operations of units of the national rescue and firefighting system. From the perspective of more than a decade of using the considered methodology for the needs of KSRG, and taking into account that no fundamental demands have been formulated by its users as to the need for significant adjustments in its structure and criterion values, it can be said that it meets the expectations placed in it. The third chapter is devoted to presenting the author’s experience of assessing the risk of major industrial accidents and using the results for the purpose of drafting documents for dealing with the aforementioned emergencies. Using selected examples, a synthetic review of the types of risk assessment methods used to determine the probability of occurrence and possible consequences of the accidents considered in this chapter was made. With regard to the methodology for assessing the risk of major accidents, taking into account the main division of risk assessment methods into comparative and basic methods, the method of conducting analytical and assessment activities in each of these groups is approximated. The fourth chapter is devoted to analyses and threat assessments prepared in connection with the need to verify the level of threat for a specific project or building. Addressing the issue of how to properly analyse and assess the threat in special cases, two examples of the mentioned analysis and assessment are characterized. The first was a methodology developed for analysing threats at facilities related to the organization of the UEFA EURO 2012 European Football Championship final tournament, and the second was a methodology for assessing threats at seaports. In each of the above cases, efforts were made to confirm the veracity of the research hypothesis that it is possible to conduct a reliable analysis and assessment of the threat at a given place and time. Proposing a methodology for assessing the threat to seaports is in turn the result of a discussion undertaken more than a decade ago in terms of developing optimal solutions for fire protection in Polish seaports. One of the topics of this discussion was the adaptation of the structure of the company’s operating emergency services to the level of risk present at a given location. The presentation of the results of the work, which began several months ago, on the creation of analytical tools to diagnose the state of safety associated with the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in rescue operations and the installation of electric car charging points in garages was the latest aspect of the author’s long-standing commitment to research for the improvement of methodologies for the analysis and assessment of fire and other local hazards, presented in this monograph. At the beginning of chapter five, issues concerning the implementation of risk analysis and assessment methods as one of the tools of fire safety engineering are discussed, pointing out the rationale for their wider use in this area than before. On this occasion, it was characterized what types of the mentioned methods can be used as fire safety engineering tools, to what extent it is possible to improve the existing methodology of risk assessment carried out before performing certain operations with unmanned aerial vehicles (BSPs), taking into account issues related to the use of the said vessels in rescue operations, and how the risk assessment of equipping garages in buildings with electric car battery charging devices can be carried out. The selection of this topic as the closing theme of this monograph also serves to emphasize that the spectrum of possible adverse events is constantly changing. In the former case, they are related to the use of new technological advances in rescue operations, which help ensure the effectiveness of the operations in question, provided, however, that certain safety criteria for air operations are met. Meanwhile, in case of electric vehicle battery charging processes, we are talking about a change in the specifics of the fire hazard in garages, raising the need to modify the way in which both the fire protection of these facilities and the conduct of possible firefighting operations are carried out. The above makes it clear that changes in the characteristics of threats should be accompanied by undertakings in the preventive sphere and in the area of mitigation, in case a given threat materializes. Therefore, there is no doubt that the above activities should be continuous. Concluding the summary, the author would like to express the hope that the content presented in the monograph has provided convincing arguments regarding the need for continuous improvement of the methodology in the area of hazard analysis and assessment, also taking into account within its framework the ever-changing reality, in which the number and variety of random events shows – unfortunately – an upward trend. The intention of the study was also to make it clear that the proper response to the growing scale of threats is to prepare effective measures to prevent their potential from being unleashed, and when that fails, a response system designed to mitigate the consequences of a given emergency. In the above context, the author also wished to draw attention to the fact that an effective anti-hazard system cannot be built in practice without laying a foundation in the form of a reliable diagnosis of each foreseeable risk. On this occasion, with the above considerations as a reference, an attempt has been made to present a significant part of the scientific and research output of the author of the monograph, who has been accompanied by the issues of risk analysis and assessment for most of his 35 years of service in various organizational units of the State Fire Service. Its evaluation remains the prerogative of the readers.