Editor's note: This is one of a six-part series
A city is devastated by natural disaster: an earthquake, a tsunami, a flood.
Within minutes, humanitarian organizations have dispatched dozens of unmanned flying machines to survey the damage from 200 metres in the air. They instantly beam back images of the destruction, as well as information on where survivors are stranded and what buildings have been destroyed.
The machines alert rescuers to hazards, such as washed-out roads or collapsed bridges. And they are about the size of a backpack and far cheaper than dispatching a fleet of helicopters.
This is the vision of researchers in the engineering department at the University of Ottawa, who are building a dirigible prototype in a project that has gained fresh urgency with the recent disaster in Japan.
Much of the hardware and software has been tested and "work beautifully," said mechanical engineering professor Atef Fahim, adding that the researchers will "be contacting companies soon to help in developing the product and producing it."
Dr. Fahim and his team use an oblong, helium-filled balloon resembling a small blimp to rise into the air, a propeller powered by a model aircraft motor to move forward and a system of pumps to control altitude. Strapped underneath are a computer drive, a motor, a battery and a camcorder.
Other sensors - for detecting harmful radiation or gas emissions, say - can be attached to the machine.
The entire apparatus, before inflation, is designed to be stored in a suitcase or backpack and carried to the disaster zone. There, rescuers inflate the balloon with helium and let it go.
The machine looks deceptively simple but does sophisticated tasks based on artificial intelligence: It can be programmed with a mission, or direction, while personnel go about their rescue duties. It then automatically compares the images it is shooting on its own camcorder with Google Earth satellite photos or GIS data of the area before the disaster to flag potential hazards for rescuers.
"It will tell them the road is missing, the bridge is gone, there is supposed to be a building there," said Dr. Fahim. "It is meant to be a smell-dog, or an eye-in-the-sky."
And the computer can process information from other machines to calculate how to fan out and cover the widest possible area.
Dr. Fahim, who first devised the concept, worked with colleague Wail Gueaieb, an assistant professor in the university's engineering department, whose area of expertise includes computers. The pair looked at natural disasters - especially the Asian earthquake and tsunami of Boxing Day, 2004 - and decided there had to be a way to search for survivors that would be cheaper than flying over in a helicopter, but less dangerous than sending people in on the ground.
"With the [2004]tsunami, they could not find people and found bridges washed out and it started gelling that maybe we should do something," said Dr. Fahim.
With a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada grant, the team, which also includes two of Dr. Fahim's graduate students, has built two prototypes of the balloon.
The first one, using Mylar polyester film, proved too delicate and would have been in danger of being damaged in the field. The second version coated the polyester in an external shell of fabric, about the texture of tough backpack material.
To counteract the lift of the helium, pumps can move air into the balloon to make it heavier and allow it to sink downwards.
The computer, which runs on a single board, has been built. The power plant is fully functional and "performs like a charm," said Dr. Fahim. The vision system and GPS and compass are "functioning beautifully."
Using C++ programming language, electrical engineering master's student Sébastien Touchette is working on the algorithms that allow the machine to navigate and compare what it "sees" with what is supposed to be there.
The machine can communicate with a rescuer's laptop using radio frequency technology similar to Wi-Fi, but the range is only about three kilometres. The next generation will use technology similar to that used in walkie-talkies, with an expected range of 25 kilometres. Rescuers just need a laptop and a dish antenna to receive images and information from the blimp.
The propulsion system is a simple model aircraft engine powered by ether and castor oil, which can also be used to charge the battery that powers the computer, camcorder and other equipment. The balloon is currently about 6.5 metres by 2 metres when inflated, though it can be produced at bigger sizes, and the researchers are aiming for a flight of between 2.5 and four hours.
The team aims to create a machine that, despite all its high-tech capabilities, is affordable enough for the non-governmental organizations that go into disaster areas. The goal is to keep the cost of production down to less than $5,000 - far cheaper than a helicopter or a conventional drone. Rescuers won't have to hesitate about sending them into disaster zones - if one is lost, it is no great expense to replace it.
They can also swarm a scene and be directed rapidly to the site of an emergency. Depending on the proximity of the NGO to the scene, Dr. Gueaieb estimates they could be deployed within minutes of a disaster striking. "You can dispatch 10 at the same time," he said. "That's the key point here - you're not losing time."
They hope to complete trials by the end of this year, gather data and tune it. Dr. Fahim hopes the prototype will be ready for production by spring of next year.
With a report from Christina Varga
Adrian Morrow