ULS in Support of Disaster Recovery: Revisiting the 2010 Haiti Earthquake
Abstract
Natural disasters, such as the 2010 catastrophic earthquake in Haiti, severely hinder governments, militaries, and humanitarian organizations from saving lives and delivering desperately needed goods. A deployable unmanned logistics system (ULS) could provide just-in-time last-mile deliveries of desperately needed medical supplies even in devastated environments such as Haiti in 2010. Commercial companies, federal agencies, and regulators are already developing the technologies and exploring the regulations that could be co-opted and modified to make a deployable ULS. This paper explores four main initiatives the United States government should champion to make this ULS a reality. 1) Modify regulations to allow autonomous systems to fly UAVs beyond-the-line-of-sight (BLOS) in the national airspace system (NAS). 2) Apply and advance existing UAV sensor, docking, and power technology. 3) Develop the mathematical algorithms that compose the flight management system. 4) Create global standards and interactive modular technology such as universal UAV docking stations, mobile apps for requesting ULS support, and standardized humanitarian loadouts. A standardized ULS flight management system with interoperable standards could deploy anywhere in the world and provide logistic services to any first responder when traditional services are either degraded or absent.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 03, 2018
- Accession Number
- AD1177218
Entities
People
- Matthew J. Wilson
Organizations
- Marine Corps University