A drone finds natural disaster survivors through their cell-phones

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Drones are effective is rescue operation and efforts are being made around the world to improve their performance

Jonathan Cheseaux developed a system for locating a person via his or her mobile phone with a drone. This device could be used to find victims in natural disasters.

A drone makes large circles in the sky. With two powerful antennas, it sniffs the data packets emitted by mobile phones. On the ground, an interface developed specifically for this project makes it possible to track the flight of a small robotic aircraft in real time from a computer.

According to HomeLand Security New Wire colored dots visible on the screen map indicate the spotted phones. The vehicle tightens its flight around the selected device to indicate its position. “In the best tests we have performed, the place indicated was within ten meters,” says Cheseaux who worked on this project for his master’s degree.