AVERLA: autonomous drone for avalanche rescue

Quick localization of buried people is essential in avalanche companion rescue operations. In this context, the AVERLA (“Autosoccorso Valanghivo E Ricerca e Localizzazione ARTVA”) project is developing an autonomous tracking system for small drones, to provide winter mountain recreationists, athletes and rescue teams with a fast and accurate resource to improve the search for buried companions. The objectives of the project are to improve a small commercial drone with the capability of interfacing with transceivers commonly used in the mountain snow environment, and the implementation of quick and efficient detection schemes for buried people localization in the drone autopilot. As the typical mountain rescue kit includes a transceiver, a shovel and a probe, in addition to the classical equipment for the mountain activity, the size of an additional element such as the AVERLA drone should be as compact as possible and for this reason, after prototyping and appropriate testing, AVERLA's goal is to miniaturise the autonomous tracking system in order to be easily mounted on small recreational drones. The paper presents the design of AVERLA tracking system focusing on the technical aspects of receiving antenna prototyping along with data collected from test campaign in mountain environment. In detail section 2 will describe the AVERLA project, section 3 will focus on the antenna design, while section 4 will present the localization patterns design and logic. Drone integration and the future miniaturization will be presented in section 5.