Skip to main content
School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science
  1. School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science
  2. PhD
  3. PhD research projects
  4. Items

Mountain Rescue Communications Support

Supervisor: Dr Eliane Bodanese

Research group(s): Networks

The aim of this project is to provide communications support to mountain rescue teams. In remote areas of mountains there are regions where there is no GPS, no GSM and no electricity but there is, in an emergency, a need for people to communicate to the mountain rescue volunteers or police. It is assumed that people will carry a mobile device such as a smart phone. Hence the technology used must be able to talk to such a device. This project is looking at developing a robust, reliable and low energy communication system that will allow people to use their mobile devices to communicate with the mountain rescue teams under severe energy/communication constraints. The novel propositions will: 1. Support a localization network able to work in dead zone areas and to reach a GSM/4G/LTE communication point, where there is a signal to communicate to the mountain rescue teams; 2. Support low energy but long range (e.g. 1 km) communication networks run in the critical areas; 3 support communication by WiFi and/or e.g. XRF to and from the GSM communications point from peoples’ smart phones; 4. to use people presence detectors/sensors, e.g. WiFi presence and personal alarm signal to trigger running the higher energy devices; 5.to use historical data and artificial intelligence techniques to help manage the energy usage to maximise the potential to detect people in trouble. It is unlikely that all the devices can be on all the time and hence they should be only on when they are needed or there is a reasonable probability that they would be needed. Different approaches need to be evaluated. The student will be able to modify the approach (with agreement) in directions that make the approach more effective and meet the mountain rescue requirements better. Initial components have been developed but the system needs to be further developed and tested and validated in cooperation with the mountain rescue people. System integration and validation are key aspects of this project.

Back to top