c ustom python tool using uas to aid in search and rescue in hays county texas aaron schroeder

Custom Python Tool using UAS to aid in Search and Rescue

in Hays County Texas

Aaron Schroeder

Geographical Traditions

• Spatial Tradition

• Utilizing distance, space, and direction

• Modern computer technology allows for this analysis

Relevant Literature

• Zeiler : Modeling our World

• Allowed for key Python Scripting examples

• Best : Geospatial web services within a scientific workflow: Predicting marine mammal habitats in a dynamic environment

• Relatable workflow using a custom tool

Data source & problems

• National Land Cover Data - USGS

• National Elevation Dataset – USGS

• 30m elevation data is not the most accurate but it is the only publicly available data for the whole US.

• Aeiral Imagery – RP Flight Systems

Background in Search & Rescue

• Search and Rescue teams have just recently implemented UAS

• Past searches have relied solely on ground search teams

• Helicopters are expensive to use

• There is a lot of waiting time for searchers due to lack of terrain intel

Study area• The tool will allow an input of a polygon feature class which

will be the AOI

• This allows for the study area to be anywhere

• Specifically we are practicing on a location in Hays County Texas

Data flow model

Data flow model

Data flow model

Data flow model

Methods

• Custom tool interface

• Extract by mask tool

• Reclassify tool

• Path Distance tool

Results

• The resulting output raster from the custom python script will display locations a person is most likely to traverse from a last known location

• We are also working on implementing a time factor into the equation which will allow us to split the area into different zones representing the likely distance traveled in a certain amount of time

References

• Zeiler, M., Murphy, J. Modeling Our World: The ESRI Guide to Geodatabase Concepts. 2nd ed. Redlands, CA: ESRI, 2010. Print.