William Weldon

Mr. William Weldon

Purdue University
orcid

Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

7Years (2020-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

View All Publications
24 July 2020 in Drones
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
WWWilliam Weldon
William Weldon
Joseph HupyJoseph Hupy
Joseph Hupy
Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are increasingly being used in search and rescue (SAR) operations to assist in the discovery of missing persons. UAS are useful to first responders in SAR operations due to rapid deployment, high data volume, and high spatial resolution data collection capabilities. Relying on traditional manual interpretation methods to find a missing person in imagery data sets containing several hundred images is both challenging and time consuming. To better find small signs of missing persons in large UAS datasets, computer assisted interpretation methods have been developed. This article presents the results of an initial evaluation of a computer assisted interpretation method tested against manual methods in a simulated SAR operation. The evaluation performed focused on using resources available to first responders performing SAR operations, specifically: RGB data, volunteers, and a commercially available software program. Results from this field test were mixed, as the traditional group discovered more objects but required more time, in man hours, to discover the objects. Further field experiments, based on the capabilities of current first responder groups, should be conducted to determine to what extent computer assisted methods are useful in SAR operations.