Drones and Artificial Intelligence from Aeromedia, Indra and ITG to track missing peopl...

Aeromedia, Indra and ITG have developed an innovative solution designed to locate missing people in record time using drones and Artificial Intelligence and save lives. The system, developed for the Galician Emergency Agency within the framework of the Aerospace Pole of Galicia, has been financed by the Xunta de Galicia, through FEDER funds, and will be integrated with the systems used by public emergency services, health and State Security Forces and Corps.

According to data from SOS Desaparecidos, 46% of people over the age of 70 who go missing in Spain suffer from Alzheimer's disease. In many cases, the outcome of these situations is fatal, despite the fact that most of the deceased were only 3 or 4 kilometres from their home or the place where they were last seen. Similarly, in the case of active tourism or natural disasters, accidents or situations in which a person gets lost and has no way of communicating their situation are frequent.

To solve the problem, DroneFinder automatically analyses, in real time, large volumes of images collected by the drones' built-in dual video camera (RGB and thermal). The system can also detect the person if he or she is wearing an electronic device, such as a wristband or smartwatch. In parallel, the system sends a warning directly to emergency teams, minimising response times and optimising the resources used in the search, thereby helping to save lives.

The ultimate goal is to locate people in record time, since, for the success of this type of operation, the first 48 hours of the search are vital, especially in the search for people with cognitive impairment, neurodegenerative diseases or people with disabilities.

Cutting-edge technological collaboration

The company Aeromedia, specialised in RPAS (remotely piloted aircraft systems) services, has national experience in search services for missing persons and provides both the hardware that will allow the search through watches, smart bracelets or mobile phones, as well as the deployment of the search operation with UAVs. Hardware and software that includes an application for mobile devices that will allow managing the activity of the personnel of the search device. These tracking devices (bracelets, watches...) are characterised by a battery life of up to two years, as well as by the monitoring capacity they provide from the user's home or place of stay.

The global leader in technological engineering Indra, which has developed the OPV (Optional Piloted Vehicle) TARGUS aircraft within the scope of the "Civil UAVs Initiative" of the Xunta de Galicia, will provide a data processing centre that merges all the information collected from the various sources. The People Search Management System (SGBDP) will centralise and store the data inputs from the different systems and will provide the end users, emergency services and police, with an interface from which they can monitor in real time the capture of these data, being also possible to use them for later reproduction. In addition, it will allow 112 to access the proposed functionalities in real time from anywhere there is an internet connection or mobile phone coverage.

The ITG Technology Centre provides its extensive experience in Artificial Vision with a solution that will facilitate the search team the automated visual inspection of the images captured by the drones. A technology based on Artificial Intelligence that allows the images from the dual cameras (RGB and thermal) carried by the drones to be processed and analysed in real time, without human intervention, both day and night. AI algorithms that multiply the volume of images analysed in a short space of time, increasing the chances of locating missing persons.

The DroneFinder project is promoted by the Xunta de Galicia in the framework of the Civil UAVs Initiative, within the Strategic Programme 2021-2025, and is funded under the REACT-EU axis of the Galicia ERDF Operational Programme 2014-2020 as part of the European Union's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The technological solution will be fully operational by the end of 2023.