Role of Unmanned Aircraft System for Post-Disaster Responses- India

Abstract

India has been vulnerable, in varying degrees, to a large number of natural, as well as, human-made disasters on account of its unique geo-climatic and socioeconomic conditions. India comes in 10 most disaster prone countries of the world. Out of 36 states and union territories in the country, 27 of them are disaster prone. Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is an emerging solution to the challenge of post Disaster response system. Besides commercial and military applications, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are now used more commonly in disaster relief operations. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are a promising maturing technology to support delivery operations due to their potential for fast, costeffective, and more sustainable nature than traditional delivery modes such as land and helicopters during post disaster operations. This paper presents a declarative approach for solving the complex relief material delivery mission planning resistant to remote areas where survivors are stuck post disaster and it takes time for rescuers to reach. This research is intended to determine the efficient and effective use of drones in terms of cost, time and accessibility in comparison to traditional response systems like aircrafts and roads. Further the research proposes a mixed-integer linear programming model (VRP) to solve this problem, followed with network analysis. Further this research demonstrated that the UAV routing optimization reduces the fleet acquisition cost and time by more than 50% on average compared to the conventional baseline.