How can LiDAR be used for search and rescue missions?

LiDAR is all about geometry. My first question to the search and rescue professionals would be: What geometry aids in search and rescue? For example, aerial covers the greatest area, potentially has the most obstructions and lowest resolution of data. Identifying optimal access would be one example use case. From here you could then clearly identify where LiDAR has value and also more precisely: What type of LiDAR? Air, ground vehicle, wearable or handheld are the biggest categories. These platforms each have their optimal use based on the geometry captured that accomplishes the search and rescue goal….Carlos Gregory ;)

I think there are better methods from a uav, thermal is it's still search and rescue. I resolution photos are easier to see and read than an elevation point cloud. And for the cost of a lidar drone, you could have about 10 thermals up in the air.

Not sure it would be my first choice for S&R, seeing a body via a LiDAR point cloud is asking a bit much imo. Car wreck, small plane crash may work but again, we typically see a real time elevation point cloud which looks awesome selling the unit. I think having a thermal with the best possible camera in the air will do you better. Have 1 person looking at the thermal and 1 person looking at the camera. I would hope there would be enough thermal change to find a body or objects around the body. If there is no temp change from body to environment, it's more of a search and recovery mission.

Lidar is typically not the best tool for SAR. Possibly for route planning during and active event, or for building a terrain model that will allow for operations closer to ground or vertical surface.

Lidar would play a much better role as a navigation sensor in limited visibility conditions during search and rescue than as a primary sensor for detection. Secondary value would be for 3D rescue plan scenarios once the objective has been identified.

Coming from a bathy survey background, I'm gonna say repeatability will be very important to me. While most units will have the imu and sensor together and hopefully proper bore sight calibrations were done, those offsets shouldn't change. I feel it would be ideal to have your imu to primary gps antenna real close to the same spot every time. And when I say real close, I'm talking within a few mm. But I'm also coming from a 2 antenna setup background which I prefer as my offsets are static. My position and heading is known to my IMU before I leave the dock/ground. With the more common, single antenna setups, not sure if it's as important, just keep doing your figure 8's and post process your heading.

In Alaska, the weather is probably our biggest concern. Planning flight paths is fairly basic as long as there isn't too much elevation change. But having good enough weather to fly is another beast. The drone can handle a lot of wind but the moisture is a killer for the drone and quality of our returns.

Classification of LiDAR data is inherently heavy on compute, which lends itself to offline processing rather than realtime, which disqualifies the sensing method for mose S&R operations.

Lidar - rerouting for collisions. Recommendation to use, for realtime cloud computation, thermal cameras for search and rescue.

In principle, it is possible to employ a SLAM based pipeline for near realtime terrain generation. Unfortunately, advanced analytics require intensive compute, which requires either edge capabilites or realtime down/uplinks. Basic interpretation by human observers directly on decimated point clouds provides the current sweet spot. Applying thermal and visible layers to a lidar derived model can be achieved in realtime, with high accuracy inertial systems. This combination provides clear insights into the location of hotspots and potential helo LZ's.

Lidar serves as an excellent baseline for all other EO sensor data. The wavelengths are optimum for resolution and detail at the human scale and the multiple echo capabilities provide penetration of porous surfaces like forests. With a precise 3D model derived from lidar, Radar, Infrared, Visible, and various other imaging products can be precisely and clearly mapped to the 3D terrain. Lidar is the reference point for all other sensor data.