Search and rescue operation is carried out once a year at various airports and this year the mock exercise for search and rescue operation is carried out at Chennai. The Airports Authority of India has partnered with SRM Institute of Science and Technology to conduct the search and rescue mission.

Mock exercise for search and rescue operation was mainly planned to make all the agencies be prepared for any contingency/disaster and also to improve coordination between numerous agencies.

The various agencies involved are coast guard, state health/fire/police services, INMCC, Indian air force, Indian navy, various NGOs and SRM. This is the first time in India to use Drones for the Search and rescue operation for an aircraft.

So to make it possible for the rescue team to inspect the area from above and to accomplish this, a Drone designed by a 20 member Team (SRM SCRO) was utilized for the search operation.

The Designed Drone is capable of carrying 2 kg payload having the imaging and transmission system, which transmits the live feed video (4K resolution) to the ground station and from the ground station the live feed video is transmitted to ATC (Air Traffic control room).

As soon as the aircraft crash takes place, the GPS signal will be transmitted to the satellite, and the ATC persons will get the GPS coordinate in terms of minutes accuracy(1.85 km). So, to improve positioning accuracy and identifying the proper location and condition of the crash area the ATC persons calls for the Drone assistance by providing the GPS coordinate.

Since the area is 1.85 km the area mapping algorithm was utilized to map the given GPS location with 2 meter location accuracy. The drone is powered by a 10000 mAh lipo battery which supplies the peak power of 3000 W to run six 400 kv brush less motors for 15 minutes.

The drone is made to fly and map the entire area, when ATC persons identify the crashed airplane in live feed video the respective GPS coordinates in seconds accuracy (20 meter) is noted, the rescue team will be sent to the crash location for the rescue operation.