Homing Pigeon Drones

Summary

The Homing Pigeon Drones are designed to provide a solution for rescuing pilots or specialized forces in distress, particularly when they are stranded in enemy territory or other high-risk environments. The primary goal of the system is to ensure that, in the event of a crash, the pilot can securely transmit their location back to the base while being exposed to jamming, enemy detection, or interception. This system uses advanced autonomous navigation, resilient communication technologies, and integrated sensor systems to ensure safe return and rescue operations.

Core Challenges

In hostile areas where communication can be easily disrupted by jamming, traditional methods of transmitting distress signals, such as relying solely on Galileo or radio signals, are vulnerable to interference. Pilots in distress may lose contact with their command centers, and their location might become untraceable by conventional means. The challenge is to create a drone system that can:

• Navigate autonomously, without Galileo, using preloaded maps and terrain features.

• Bring encrypted location information and messages securely, without being exposed to jamming or interception.

Solution Overview

The Homing Pigeon Drones represent a modern adaptation of homing pigeons. This innovative system provides a solution for pilots or special forces in distress by utilizing a combination of preloaded map data and advanced sensors. In the event of a crash, the pilot can activate the drone, which autonomously returns to base by using an integrated Copernicus digital surface model and terrain contour matching.

The drone targets predefined beacons that can be located on the preloaded map, allowing it to transport the pilot’s location, key messages, and other crucial information securely. 

Minimal Viable Product:

• Small UAV frame, with electric motors and lithium battery

• Flight Controller with extended storage and dedicated firmware

• RGB Camera 

• LiDAR surface elevation

• IMU with Compass

• Beacon signal receptor in the safe zone (using Galileo)

• Copernicus digital surface model Software: terrain contour matching

• Data encryption of the message

• Secured box for the drone’s onboard computer

Future work and pending challenges:

Although our solution is proposing an operational system, there is room for some improvements:

• Product extension:

  • Better accuracy by including other instruments and technologies such as computer vision using AI and multispectral imaging

  • Path optimization using better algorithms

  • Hardware resources capacities upgrade, while considering the eventual power consumption and the weight impact

• Drones deployment for injured pilot

• Enemy recognition:

  • Auto-destruction implementation in case the drone is captured

  • Stealthiness enhancement by adapting the shape and the materials

• Cybersecurity especially for unique signature of the drones and data encryption

• Team extension:

  • Aeronautics specialist

  • Legal/compliance officer

  • Mechanical engineer

Extension of Applications

• Defense: Informations sharing

  • Friendly -> hostile

  • Hostile -> friendly

• Rescue during Natural Disaster area

• Remote area: Crash in remote area

Libraries used

• numpy 

• matplotlib 

• scipy 

• pillow 

• scikit-image