Browse Topic: Rescue operations
Helicopters' Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) capabilities are essential for maritime operations, especially for small-deck naval vessels. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) offer a cheaper, expendable, and efficient alternative for certain tasks, such as reducing pilot risk and lowering fuel consumption. While the procedures to approach and land on (moving) ships are standardized and bound to established operational limits in the case of crewed helicopters, UAVs lack such guidelines. This study investigates optimal rotary-wing UAV approach trajectories to a moving ship, for varying wind conditions and relative initial positions, and for different objectives. The goal is to provide preliminary guidelines for maritime UAV recovery operations, and a preliminary estimation of performance-based operational limits. The optimal trajectories are obtained using a global path-performance optimization framework based on Optimal Control Theory. The trajectories are compared to each other and to
Refueling mid air is considered as important force multiplier for e.g. conducting search and rescue operations. Due to close proximity to the tanker, the refueling hose and drogue as well as the receiver can be strongly affected by the tanker's wake. Thus, the refueling drogue extended from the tanker by a hose is often oscillating from turbulence. Contact with the tanker has to be established by positioning the receiver's refueling probe within the tanker's drogue. During qualification training pilots are instructed to not focus on the drogue, due to its oscillations. This is done since chasing the drogue often leads to over-controlling and therefore mostly to a failed contact attempt. The presented research aims for improving today's Helicopter Air-to-Air Refueling (HAAR) as well as related training efficiency by a gain of understanding in this phenomenon. Therefore, the HAAR real-time simulation scenario at German Aerospace Center's (DLR) Air Vehicle Simulator (AVES) was extended
Advanced technology plays a vital role in search and rescue operations after natural disasters such as earthquakes. Thermal imaging equipment and sensitive listening devices are deployed to seek out signs of life. Small aerial drones could also survey otherwise inaccessible spaces, but the inherent fragility of current designs have limited their use.
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
xEVs involved in incidents present unique hazards associated with the high voltage system (including the battery system). These hazards can be grouped into three categories: chemical, electrical, and thermal. The potential consequences can vary depending on the size, configuration, and specific battery chemistry. Other incidents may arise from secondary events such as garage fires and floods. These types of incidents are also considered in the recommended practice (RP). This RP aims to describe the potential consequences associated with hazards from xEVs and suggest common procedures to help protect emergency responders, tow and/or recovery, storage, repair, and salvage personnel after an incident has occurred with an electrified vehicle. Industry design standards and tools were studied and where appropriate, suggested for responsible organizations to implement. Lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries used for vehicle propulsion power are the assumed battery system of this RP. This chemistry is
This SAE Aerospace Recommended Practice (ARP) describes terminology specific to unmanned systems (UMSs) and definitions for those terms. It focuses only on terms used exclusively for the development, testing, and other activities regarding UMSs. It further focuses on the autonomy and performance measures aspects of UMSs and is based on the participants’ earlier work, the Autonomy Levels for Unmanned Systems (ALFUS) Framework, published as NIST Special Publication 1011-I-2.0 and NIST Special Publication 1011-II-1.0. This Practice also reflects the collaboration results with AIR5665. Terms that are used in the community but can be understood with common dictionary definitions are not included in this document. Further efforts to expand the scope of the terminology are being planned.
The Royal Australian Navy completed a series of First of Class Flight Trials in 2015 to establish Ship Helicopter Operating Limitations for Australian Defence Force rotary wing aircraft to the Canberra Class Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD). A Risk Reduction Tool (RTT) was developed to understand the impact of LHD airflow behavior on rotary wing operations. Specifically, the tool combined a ship air wake, a flight dynamic and a Pilot Model to provide an indicative effect of the air wake on pilot controls throughout an MRH90 recovery evolution. A verification of this tool suggests that the RRT in isolation was not able to characterize the flight environment with sufficient fidelity to predict pilot workload during recovery operations to the LHD. However, the RRT improved upon the information provided through stand-alone ship air wake analysis and as such the tool is suitable as a risk reduction measure prior to flight testing.
Loads slung under aircraft can go into divergent oscillations coupling multiple degrees of freedom. Predicting the highest safe flight speed for a vehicle-load combination is a critical challenge, both for military missions over hostile areas, and for evacuation/rescue operations. The primary difficulty was that of obtaining well-resolved airload maps covering the arbitrary attitudes that a slung load may take. High speed rotorcraft using tilting rotors and co-axial rotors can fly at speeds that imply high dynamic pressure, making aerodynamic loads significant even on very dense loads such as armored vehicles, artillery weapons, and ammunition. The Continuous Rotation method demonstrated in our prior work enables routine prediction of divergence speeds. We build on prior work to explore the prediction of divergence speed for practical configurations such as military vehicles, which often have complex bluff body shapes. Results from simulations are presented for 3 vehicle shapes: one
This paper describes the continuing development work being undertaken to establish Flying Qualities Requirements for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) that will be expected to operate in the Maritime Environment. A UAS Dynamics Model (UDM) has been developed to allow the rapid investigation of the aircraft dynamics required to conduct ship-deck launch and recovery operations. The process used to develop the UDM is described along with the method used to fix the UDM dynamics to ADS-33E-PRF style bandwidth criteria. Two turbulence model structures are described and a preliminary test of the model dynamics in the lateral axis is reported. The model has been initially configured to assess an SH-60B-class UAS operating from a Type 23 Frigate. These preliminary investigations show that the methods being pursued hold promise to achieve the project aims.
Solid chemical oxygen supplies of interest to aircraft operations are "chlorate candles" and potassium superoxide (KO2). Chlorate candles are used in passenger oxygen supply units and other emergency oxygen systems, such as submarines and escape devices. Potassium superoxide is not used in aircraft operations but is used in closed-cycle breathing apparatus. Characteristics and applications of both are discussed, with emphasis on chlorate candles.
ABSTRACT While helicopters are used for a myriad of purposes in rural and urban environments, their true potential can be measured by the support they can offer in extreme and remote areas. This paper describes a Northern Canadian operator, Universal Helicopters Newfoundland and Labrador LP, the equipment used, the tasks performed, the working conditions and the risks and challenges faced . The principal areas of operation include the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Ungava Peninsula and Canada's high and eastern Arctic. The company operates 19 light and intermediate helicopters in one of the most challenging environments in the world. The aircraft are equipped with operational equipment and accessories for operation in temperature extremes which test not only the machinery but the crews that fly and maintain them. A Safety Management System is in place to properly identify and manage the unique risks of operating in the north as well as logistical support that recognizes
The eNOTIFY project defined an algorithm which allows the vehicle to recognize when an accident has occurred and what kind of accident has taken place (frontal, side, roll-over or rear-end collision). The innovative aspects of this methodology are basically that, for each type of accident and for each class of vehicle, a maximum and minimum level of vehicle accelerations (linear or angular) are defined for the severe accident, slight accident and no accident scenarios. A direct application of this algorithm could be to include it in an on-board unit on vehicles, and use it in emergency call applications. eCall devices have been developed to automatically notify emergency services in the event of an accident, in which a fast and efficient rescue operation can significantly increase the chances of survival of the severely injured. In order to reduce response time and improve the efficiency of the medical and technical services, fast and accurate accident identification is required. This
Solid chemical oxygen supplies of interest to aircraft operations are "chlorate candles" and potassium superoxide (KO2). Chlorate candles are used in passenger oxygen supply units and other emergency oxygen systems, such as submarines and escape devices. Potassium superoxide is not used in aircraft operations but is used in closed-cycle breathing apparatus. Characteristics and applications of both are discussed, with emphasis on chlorate candles.
Worldwide, 1.2 million people die in road crashes yearly; 43,000 in Europe alone. This implies a cost to European society of approximately 160 billion euros, and takes up 10% of all healthcare resources. To reduce these rates, safety technologies have been developed which help to minimize the severity of injuries to vehicle occupants. However, studies have shown that most deaths due to road accidents occur in the time between the accident and the arrival of medical care. Therefore, a fast and efficient rescue operation would significantly increase the injured person's probability of survival. The aim of this project was to define the On-Board Unit (OBU) hardware and software installed in all modern vehicles which could request medical and technical support after a road accident. This device, based on the information from the vehicle sensors, automatically decides whether the car has suffered a road accident or not, the severity of the accident and the kind of accident (impact area
The Remote Sensing Hyperspectral Engine (RSHE) is a special-purpose, portable computer that performs high-performance processing of hyperspectral image data collected by a remote-sensing optoelectronic apparatus. Typically, the remote-sensing apparatus is airborne or spaceborne, the images are of terrain, and the purpose of collecting and analyzing the image data is to estimate the spatially varying abundances of materials of interest. Remote-sensing applications in which the RSHE could prove beneficial include assessment of crops, exploration for minerals, identification of military targets, urban-planning studies, environmental assessment, and large-area search-and- rescue operations.
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