Searching, salvaging and rescuing integrated water surface unmanned ship system and working method thereof

Abstract

The invention relates to the technical field of water area automatic rescue, in particular to a searching, salvaging and rescuing integrated water surface unmanned ship system and a working method thereof, and the system comprises a water surface unmanned ship platform, a water-air cooperative searching and salvaging robot and a temperature loss recovery treatment and information processing module; through cooperative operation of the cruise unmanned aerial vehicle and the water surface unmanned ship, accurate positioning and rapid tracking of a drowning target are achieved, then accurate salvage of the robot on the target is carried out through pose estimation and tail end compensation control, and finally rapid rewarming treatment is carried out on the drowning target. The system effectively integrates the functions of searching and detecting, accurate salvaging and rapid treatment, and is suitable for the whole-process rescue operation of various water area scenes.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention belongs to the technical field of automated rescue in water areas, and in particular relates to an integrated search, salvage and rescue surface unmanned boat system and a working method thereof. Background Art

[0002] In recent years, with the increasing frequency of near-shore operations and water activities, drowning accidents have become increasingly common. Water rescue has become a critical technical challenge in the public safety sector that urgently needs to be overcome. Traditional manual rescue methods rely on close proximity between rescuers and the environment, which inherently suffers from poor adaptability (e.g., rescue efficiency significantly decreases in inclement weather and complex water conditions), slow response times (long delays from receiving an alarm to arriving at the scene), and high operational risks (rescuers themselves face safety hazards such as drowning and exhaustion). Furthermore, victims of drowning are susceptible to rapid loss of body temperature in cold water, leading to hypothermia. Data shows that severe hypothermia can occur after 30 minutes of immersion in 10°C water. Existing rescue systems generally lack the ability to rapidly rewarm victims on-site, making it difficult to effectively intervene in the body temperature of victims within the critical rescue window, limiting rescue success rates.

[0003] To address these issues, intelligent unmanned equipment has gradually been introduced into the field of water rescue. Existing solutions attempt to use unmanned boats, drones, and other devices to search and locate drowned individuals. For example, the unmanned marine rescue boat disclosed in CN116353797A, while capable of positioning, navigation, and the delivery of lifesaving equipment, relies on the active cooperation of the rescued individuals and lacks the ability to dynamically track, accurately salvage, and autonomously treat drowned individuals. This makes it difficult to cover the full rescue process of "detection-tracking-salvage-treatment." Furthermore, existing systems often utilize a single device operating independently, resulting in insufficient coordination between functional modules. Especially in complex sea conditions, salvage robots are susceptible to wave interference, leading to positioning errors. Furthermore, the rewarming process relies on subsequent transfer to onshore medical facilities, making it impossible to meet emergency treatment needs.

[0004] Therefore, there is an urgent need for an automated rescue system that can integrate multiple functions such as water-air collaborative search, dynamic tracking, precise salvage, on-site rewarming and treatment, so as to break through the technical bottleneck of traditional manual rescue and improve the efficiency and reliability of rescue in complex environments. Summary of the Invention

[0005] In order to solve the above technical problems, the present invention proposes an integrated search, salvage and rescue surface unmanned boat system, which includes a surface unmanned boat platform, a water-air collaborative search module, a salvage robot module, a hypothermia recovery and treatment module and an information processing module; The surface unmanned boat platform is used to carry each module and perform autonomous tracking based on target location information; The water-air collaborative search module is used to obtain rescue mission scene information to identify and locate the target falling into the water; The salvage robot module is used to accurately salvage objects that have fallen into the water; The hypothermia recovery and treatment module is used to monitor the body temperature of the target who has fallen into the water and provide rapid rewarming treatment to the target; The information processing module is in communication with each sensor and actuator, and is used to fuse perception information, issue instructions and coordinate the linkage operations of each module.

[0006] Preferably, the surface unmanned boat platform controls the position and heading by the thrust difference between the left and right propellers to track the target that falls into the water.

[0007] Preferably, the water-air collaborative search module includes a cruise drone, a thermal imaging gimbal, and a depth camera; The cruise drone autonomously plans a cruise path according to the rescue mission scenario; The thermal imaging platform is fixed on the top of the unmanned boat platform and is used to detect targets with significant temperature in the scene; The depth camera is installed on the right side of the unmanned boat and is used to obtain the three-dimensional position coordinate information of the target falling into the water.

[0008] Preferably, the salvage robot module comprises a robot, a flexible salvage device and an inertial measurement unit; The robot is installed on the right side of the unmanned boat platform; The flexible salvaging device is installed at the end flange of the robot and is used to accurately salvage the fallen object; The inertial measurement unit is arranged at the base coordinate system of the salvage robot and is used to measure the position disturbance of the base coordinate system of the robot.

[0009] Preferably, the hypothermia recovery and treatment module includes a main control device and a medical rewarming bag; The medical rewarming bag is used to accommodate a target that has fallen into water and perform rapid rewarming treatment; The main control device is used to obtain physiological parameters of the target of falling into the water in real time to dynamically control the rewarming air volume, and monitor environmental information to issue an alarm.

[0010] Preferably, the information processing module includes a computer, which establishes communication with the cruise drone, thermal imaging gimbal, depth camera, surface unmanned boat, inertial measurement unit and robot respectively, and is used to collect sensor information and send control instructions.

[0011] The present invention also discloses a method for operating an unmanned surface boat integrated with search, salvage and rescue based on the system, comprising the following steps: S1: The cruise drone conducts a coverage cruise over the target waters and searches for the target that has fallen into the water. The thermal imaging gimbal continuously acquires the target status. S2: The surface unmanned boat controls its course and advances to the target vicinity; S3: The depth camera identifies the falling object and obtains its coordinate position; S4: Salvage robots carry out precise salvage and rescue operations; S5: After the target is transferred to the medical rewarming bag, the main control device collects its body temperature parameters in real time and performs rapid rewarming processing.

[0012] Preferably, in step S1, the cruising drone plans a zigzag cruising path based on a satellite map, and switches to a local spiral search mode after detecting a target, until the target is located in the center area of the image and hovers to return the coordinates.

[0013] Preferably, in step S4, the salvage robot obtains the base coordinate system posture disturbance in real time through the inertial measurement unit, calculates the terminal posture compensation amount in combination with the kinematic model, and realizes dynamic correction to offset the wave interference.

[0014] Preferably, in step S5, the main control device dynamically adjusts the heating air volume of the medical rewarming bag according to the target body temperature of the drowned person, starts the rapid rewarming mode when the body temperature is too low, and switches to the constant temperature insulation mode after returning to the normal range.

[0015] Compared with the prior art, the present invention has the following beneficial effects: The present invention achieves automation and intelligence in the entire water rescue process through the collaborative operation of multiple modules. The water-air collaborative search module can quickly locate fallen targets in complex water environments through the coverage cruise of the cruise drone and the temperature feature recognition of the thermal imaging gimbal. Combined with the three-dimensional coordinate acquisition capability of the depth camera, it significantly improves the accuracy and efficiency of target detection; the surface unmanned boat platform achieves dynamic tracking through propeller thrust difference control. The salvage robot module is based on the posture disturbance monitoring and terminal compensation control algorithm of the inertial measurement unit, which effectively offsets the impact of wave interference on the salvage trajectory. Combined with the buffer design of the flexible salvage device, it can achieve accurate capture and transfer of fallen targets while avoiding secondary damage.

[0016] The hypothermia recovery and treatment module, through the constant temperature heating system of the medical rewarming bag and the dynamic temperature control strategy of the main control device, can monitor the body temperature of the drowning person in real time at the rescue site and perform rapid rewarming, shortening the time interval from salvage to treatment and significantly reducing the risk of hypothermia. The information processing module ensures seamless connection between all links through multi-sensor data fusion and full-process instruction coordination, forming a closed-loop operation system of "search-tracking-salvage-treatment". Compared with traditional manual rescue, this invention not only greatly improves rescue efficiency and reliability, but also enhances the system's environmental adaptability and task scalability through modular design. It can be widely used in scenarios such as near-shore rescue and water area inspections, and has significant social benefits and engineering application value. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0017] Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram of the system architecture of the present invention.

[0018] Figure 2 It is a schematic diagram of the system structure of the present invention.

[0019] Figure 3 It is a flow chart of the present invention.

[0020] Figure 4 This is a flow chart of the terminal compensation salvage of the present invention.

[0021] Figure 5 It is a schematic diagram of the salvage and rescue process of the present invention.

[0022] Figure 6 It is a flow chart of the hypothermia recovery and treatment process of the present invention.

[0023] Figure 7 It is a flow chart of the overall rescue process of the present invention.

[0024] [Description of Reference Numerals] 1-Unmanned boat platform; 2-Thermal imaging gimbal; 3-Cruise drone; 4-Computer; 5-Depth camera; 6-Robot; 7-Flexible salvage device; 8-Inertial measurement unit; 9-Real-time differential positioning device; 10-Robot controller; 11-Medical rewarming bag; 12-Main control unit; 13-Sensor rack. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0025] The present invention will be further described below with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments, but the following embodiments are by no means intended to limit the present invention in any way.

[0026] like Figure 1 and Figure 2 As shown, an embodiment of the present invention provides an integrated search, salvage and rescue surface unmanned boat system, including a surface unmanned boat platform, a water-air collaborative search module, a salvage robot module, a hypothermia recovery and treatment module, and an information processing module; The unmanned surface vehicle platform is the operating vehicle of the rescue system, carrying all functional modules and equipment, and is responsible for autonomously tracking the target. The unmanned surface vehicle achieves closed-loop control of heading and position errors by adjusting the thrust difference between the left and right propellers, thereby achieving target tracking. The water-air collaborative search module includes a cruise drone, a thermal imaging gimbal, and a depth camera, which are used to search and locate targets that have fallen into the water; In one embodiment, the cruise drone transmits a real-time video stream via the 2.4 GHz / 5.8 GHz dual-band to an information processing module. The information processing module identifies the target that has fallen into the water based on a preset target detection algorithm. Combined with satellite map images of the mission area, the module extracts the water area using an image segmentation algorithm and plans a zigzag path for autonomous cruising. When the confidence level of the detection result exceeds a set threshold, the cruise strategy switches to a local spiral search mode until the target that has fallen into the water is in the center of the image. The cruise drone then hovers and transmits back the target's coordinate position information. After receiving the target coordinates, the unmanned boat platform adjusts its course and autonomously tracks the target using the target direction as a guide. In one embodiment, the thermal imaging gimbal performs a cruise scan of the target waters, acquiring infrared image information in real time and identifying and locating the drowned target based on significant temperature signatures in the image. By analyzing the thermal radiation signature of the drowned target, accurate recognition and spatial location of the target can be achieved, thereby assisting the surface unmanned vehicle in carrying out precise salvage missions. In one embodiment, the depth camera is fixedly mounted on the starboard side of the unmanned surface vehicle to capture visible light images and depth data of the submerged target. Hand-eye calibration is then used to convert the image coordinate system captured by the depth camera to the salvage robot's base coordinate system. Based on the depth map and image recognition results, the information processing module accurately calculates the three-dimensional spatial coordinates of the submerged target relative to the salvage robot's base coordinate system, providing a target position reference for subsequent robotic salvage operations. The salvage and rescue robot system includes a robot, a flexible salvage device and an inertial measurement unit; In one embodiment, the robot is mounted on the starboard side of the stern of the unmanned boat via a base, with its workspace covering the water area to the right of the unmanned boat. A hand-eye system is established with a depth camera to obtain the position of the fallen object. The robot performs salvage operations based on motion commands issued by the information processing module. In one embodiment, the robot's end flange is equipped with a flexible salvage device, which is made of high-strength medical textile material and an internal steel support frame. It has good buffering performance, can effectively reduce secondary damage to the target and improve load stability; In one embodiment, the inertial measurement unit is installed at the base coordinate system of the salvage robot to collect the base's posture and acceleration information in real time under wave interference conditions. The information processing module fuses and filters the acceleration and angular velocity data to calculate the posture change of the salvage robot's base coordinate system. Combined with the kinematic model, the end-point posture compensation and the corresponding joint angle change are calculated to achieve dynamic correction of the end-point salvage device during the salvage operation. The hypothermia recovery and treatment module includes a main control device and a medical rewarming bag; In one embodiment, the medical rewarming bag is placed in the cabin and has a built-in constant temperature heating element, which can quickly increase the temperature of the rewarming bag and maintain a constant temperature state, and is used to accommodate and rewarm the target who fell into the water; In one embodiment, the main control device is arranged in the vicinity of the rewarming bag, and is used to monitor the body temperature status of the target who fell into the water in real time, and adjust the heating intensity according to the feedback information. When it is detected that the body temperature of the target who fell into the water is too low, the main control device automatically controls the heating device to enter the rapid rewarming mode; when the body temperature returns to the normal range, it switches to the constant temperature insulation mode to avoid overheating; at the same time, the main control device continuously monitors the environmental information, and if an abnormal situation is detected, the heating device is interrupted to ensure the safety of the rewarming process.

[0027] like Figure 3 As shown, an embodiment of the present invention provides an operating method for an integrated search, salvage and rescue surface unmanned boat, comprising the following steps: S1: The cruise drone conducts a coverage cruise over the target waters and searches for targets that have fallen into the water. The thermal imaging gimbal continuously acquires the target status.

[0028] In this step, the system first performs image segmentation processing on the search area based on the satellite map, extracts the water body boundary information, and constructs a polygonal outline representing the water body area. The area is then divided vertically and linearly according to the set cutting interval, and a zigzag round-trip cruise path is generated based on the equal spacing strategy to achieve full coverage search of the area. The UAV transmits real-time video stream to the information processing module via 2.4GHz / 5.8 GHz dual-band wireless transmission. After identifying a potential target, the cruise strategy is switched to a local spiral search mode. When the target confidence exceeds the set threshold and is located in the center of the image, it enters the hovering state and uploads the positioning coordinates; In this step, the thermal imaging gimbal assists in searching for targets, determines the target's presence based on significant temperature points in the infrared image, and achieves accurate thermal feature extraction and spatial position determination of the target that fell into the water.

[0029] S2: The surface unmanned boat controls its course and advances to the area adjacent to the target.

[0030] In this step, the surface unmanned boat controls the thrust of the twin propellers and implements joint closed-loop control of heading and position based on real-time error feedback between the current position and the target position, thereby achieving accurate tracking of the target falling into the water.

[0031] S3: The depth camera identifies the falling object and obtains its coordinate position.

[0032] In this step, the depth camera captures an image containing the submerged object and its corresponding depth information. By extracting the pixel coordinates of the object from the image and combining them with the depth information for spatial reconstruction, the precise three-dimensional coordinates of the object in the camera coordinate system are obtained. Based on the completed hand-eye calibration results, the information processing module uses a pose transformation matrix to convert these three-dimensional coordinates to the salvage robot's base coordinate system. This matrix then determines the target spatial pose that the robot's terminal salvage device needs to reach.

[0033] S4: Salvage robots carry out precise salvage and rescue operations.

[0034] In this step, the inertial measurement unit is used to collect the angular velocity and acceleration data of the robot's base coordinate system in real time through serial communication. To improve the accuracy of posture measurement, the internal parameters of the inertial measurement unit need to be calibrated so that its output data remains stable around the set reference value. The extended Kalman filter is used to fuse the data collected by the accelerometer and gyroscope to achieve high-precision estimation of the attitude angle. Specifically, the system state equation uses the attitude angle obtained by integrating the gyroscope angular velocity as the state variable. The measurement equation is based on the pitch and roll angles calculated by the accelerometer to correct the attitude estimation error. Adaptive filtering is added to correct the covariance matrix. In order to eliminate the cumulative error caused by the second-order integration of acceleration, a band-pass filter is used to pre-process the acceleration measurement value to extract the dynamic characteristic signal within the effective frequency band. Then, the cumulative integration is performed, and a high-pass filter is introduced to eliminate the integral drift component to accurately obtain the base motion displacement. Among them, the salvage process based on terminal compensation is the process in which the base coordinate system of the salvage robot moves relative to the world coordinate system due to wave interference, and the robot terminal coordinate system moves along a preset trajectory relative to the world coordinate system. According to the change of the base coordinate system of the salvage robot obtained by posture estimation, the compensation amount of the terminal posture is converted using the homogeneous transformation matrix, and the corresponding joint variables are obtained according to inverse kinematics. The salvage process based on terminal compensation is as follows: Figure 4 As shown; In this step, the information processing module sends joint control instructions to the robot so that the robot can track joint variables and execute the salvage process. During the salvage process, the flexible salvage device at the end extends to the bottom of the spatial position of the fallen target and slowly salvages the fallen target. Under the action of the flexible salvage device, the impact force and potential secondary damage risk borne by the fallen target are significantly reduced. Based on the current spatial position of the fallen target and the base coordinate system posture of the robot, the system executes the terminal compensation control strategy to offset the influence of external disturbances on the salvage trajectory, achieve accurate salvage of the fallen target, and transfer the target to the medical rewarming bag. The salvage process is as follows: Figure 5 shown.

[0035] S5: After the target is transferred to the medical rewarming bag, the main control device collects its body temperature parameters in real time and performs rapid rewarming processing.

[0036] In this step, the main control device monitors the temperature of the target body in real time and controls the heating air volume accordingly. If the target body temperature is low, the heating air volume is automatically adjusted and the rewarming bag heating device is activated to quickly rewarm the target. When the body temperature returns to the normal range, it switches to the constant temperature insulation mode to avoid overheating. At the same time, the main control device continuously monitors environmental information and automatically triggers the early warning mechanism when it detects abnormal temperature rise or equipment failure, immediately terminating the heating process to effectively avoid secondary damage. The hypothermia recovery and treatment process is as follows: Figure 6 The whole salvage and rescue process is as shown in Figure 7 shown.

[0037] The present invention provides an integrated search, salvage and rescue surface unmanned boat system and its working method, which can realize full-process autonomous salvage and rescue operations based on the unmanned boat platform through the coordinated cooperation of water-air collaborative search, salvage operations based on robot terminal compensation control, and rapid rewarming and treatment. It not only overcomes the limitations of low efficiency and high risk of manual rescue in the existing technology, realizes the automation and intelligence of rescue operations for fallen targets, but also significantly improves the rescue efficiency and success rate. In addition, the invention adopts a modular design, has good task scalability and environmental adaptability, can flexibly configure perception and execution components according to different application scenarios, supports the access of various types of search, salvage and rescue equipment, has broad engineering application prospects, and can be promoted and applied to various operational tasks such as water area inspections and marine environmental monitoring.

[0038] The basic principles, main features and advantages of the present invention are shown and described above. For those skilled in the art, it is obvious that the present invention is not limited to the details of the above exemplary embodiments, and the present invention can be implemented in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or basic features of the present invention.

[0039] The embodiments are therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being defined by the appended claims rather than the foregoing description, and all changes that come within the meaning and range of equivalents of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein.

Claims

1. An integrated search, salvage and rescue unmanned surface boat system, characterized in that: It includes a surface unmanned boat platform, a water-air collaborative search module, a salvage robot module, a hypothermia recovery and treatment module, and an information processing module; The surface unmanned boat platform is used to carry each module and perform autonomous tracking based on target location information; The water-air collaborative search module is used to obtain rescue mission scene information to identify and locate the target falling into the water; The salvage robot module is used to accurately salvage objects that have fallen into the water; The hypothermia recovery and treatment module is used to monitor the body temperature of the target who has fallen into the water and provide rapid rewarming treatment to the target; The information processing module establishes communication connections with the above modules to integrate perception information, issue instructions and coordinate the linkage operations of each module.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein: The surface unmanned boat platform controls the position and heading by the thrust difference between the left and right propellers to track the target falling into the water.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein: The water-air collaborative search module includes a cruise drone, a thermal imaging gimbal, and a depth camera; The cruise drone autonomously plans a cruise path according to the rescue mission scenario; The thermal imaging platform is fixed on the top of the unmanned boat platform and is used to detect targets with significant temperature in the scene; The depth camera is installed on the right side of the unmanned boat and is used to obtain the three-dimensional position coordinate information of the target falling into the water.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein: The salvage robot module includes a robot, a flexible salvage device and an inertial measurement unit; The robot is installed on the right side of the unmanned boat platform; The flexible salvaging device is installed at the end flange of the robot and is used to accurately salvage the fallen object; The inertial measurement unit is arranged at the base coordinate system of the salvage robot and is used to measure the position disturbance of the base coordinate system of the robot.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein: The hypothermia recovery and treatment module includes a main control device and a medical rewarming bag; The medical rewarming bag is used to accommodate a target that has fallen into water and perform rapid rewarming treatment; The main control device is used to obtain physiological parameters of the target of falling into the water in real time to dynamically control the rewarming air volume, and monitor environmental information to issue an alarm.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein: The information processing module includes a computer, which establishes communication with the cruise drone, thermal imaging gimbal, depth camera, surface unmanned boat, inertial measurement unit and robot respectively to collect sensor information and send control instructions.

7. A method for operating an integrated search, salvage and rescue surface unmanned boat based on the system according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that: The steps include: S1: The cruise drone conducts a coverage cruise over the target waters and searches for the target that has fallen into the water. The thermal imaging gimbal continuously acquires the target status. S2: The surface unmanned boat controls its course and advances to the target vicinity; S3: The depth camera identifies the falling object and obtains its coordinate position; S4: Salvage robots carry out precise salvage and rescue operations; S5: After the target is transferred to the medical rewarming bag, the main control device collects its body temperature parameters in real time and performs rapid rewarming processing.

8. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that In step S1, the cruise drone plans a zigzag cruise path based on the satellite map, and switches to a local spiral search mode after detecting a target until the target is located in the center area of the image and hovers to return the coordinates.

9. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that In step S4, the salvage robot obtains the base coordinate system posture disturbance in real time through the inertial measurement unit, calculates the terminal posture compensation amount in combination with the kinematic model, and realizes dynamic correction to offset the wave interference.

10. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that In step S5, the main control device dynamically adjusts the heating air volume of the medical rewarming bag according to the target body temperature of the drowned patient, starts the rapid rewarming mode when the body temperature is too low, and switches to the constant temperature insulation mode after the body temperature returns to the normal range.

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