Re:Fleets of drones could aid searches for lost hikers
by gaius on Friday November 02, 2018 @01:37PM
(#18365009)
looking for brightly colored objects on the ground. At around 100 feet above ground level our success rate was around 60%.
I've done SAR at sea and it is frightening how close you can be to who/what you are looking for and not see them/it because of the waves, or reflections, or low cloud/fog, or rain, and then there's the constant movement of everything due to currents and wind, the inaccuracy of GPS and shooting resections... And you can't just have guys out looking, there are only a small number of RIBs or other assets, and they have limited endurance, and the sea is very very big.
SAR is a hard, hard problem as you say. When I dive for fun now, I take an excessive amount of gear incase I ever need to be found.
I've done SAR at sea and it is frightening how close you can be to who/what you are looking for and not see them/it because of the waves, or reflections, or low cloud/fog, or rain, and then there's the constant movement of everything due to currents and wind, the inaccuracy of GPS and shooting resections... And you can't just have guys out looking, there are only a small number of RIBs or other assets, and they have limited endurance, and the sea is very very big.
SAR is a hard, hard problem as you say. When I dive for fun now, I take an excessive amount of gear incase I ever need to be found.