TL;DR
Wi2SAR is an innovative drone-based wireless system that enables long-range wilderness search and rescue by mimicking Wi-Fi networks, discovering victims' devices, and guiding drones efficiently in challenging environments.
Contribution
The paper introduces Wi2SAR, a novel autonomous drone system with three key innovations: device discovery, long-range direction finding, and adaptive navigation, all demonstrated through a working prototype.
Findings
Wi2SAR achieves high performance and efficiency in wilderness scenarios.
The system extends operational range using a 3D-printed Luneburg Lens for direction finding.
Experimental results validate Wi2SAR's practicality and effectiveness.
Abstract
Wilderness Search and Rescue (WiSAR) represents a longstanding and critical societal challenge, demanding innovative and automatic technological solutions. In this paper, we introduce Wi2SAR, a novel autonomous drone-based wireless system for long-range, through-occlusion WiSAR operations, without relying on existing infrastructure. Our basic insight is to leverage the automatic reconnection behavior of modern Wi-Fi devices to known networks. By mimicking these networks via on-drone Wi-Fi, Wi2SAR uniquely facilitates the discovery and localization of victims through their accompanying mobile devices. Translating this simple idea into a practical system poses substantial technical challenges. Wi2SAR overcomes these challenges via three distinct innovations: (1) a rapid and energy-efficient device discovery mechanism to discover and identify the target victim, (2) a novel RSS-only,…
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