The recent years have witnessed an increase in natural disasters in which the destruction of essential communication infrastructure has significantly affected the number of casualties. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina in the United States resulted in over 1,900 deaths, three million land-line phones disconnections, and more than 2000 cell sites going out of service. This incident highlighted an urgent need for a quick-deployment, efficient communication network for emergency relief purposes. In this research, a fully autonomous system to deploy Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as the first phase disaster recovery communication network for wide-area relief is presented. As part of this system, an automation algorithm has been developed to control the deployment and positioning of the UAVs based on a traditional cell network structure utilizing 7-cell clusters in a hexagonal pattern. In addition to the software algorithm, a fully functional control interface was developed which allowed for full control of the system both locally and over an internet connection. This system represents a novel approach for handling a large-scale autonomous deployment of a UAV communications networks.
","abstract_html":"<p>The recent years have witnessed an increase in natural disasters in which the destruction of essential communication infrastructure has significantly affected the number of casualties. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina in the United States resulted in over 1,900 deaths, three million land-line phones disconnections, and more than 2000 cell sites going out of service. This incident highlighted an urgent need for a quick-deployment, efficient communication network for emergency relief purposes. In this research, a fully autonomous system to deploy Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as the first phase disaster recovery communication network for wide-area relief is presented. As part of this system, an automation algorithm has been developed to control the deployment and positioning of the UAVs based on a traditional cell network structure utilizing 7-cell clusters in a hexagonal pattern. In addition to the software algorithm, a fully functional control interface was developed which allowed for full control of the system both locally and over an internet connection. This system represents a novel approach for handling a large-scale autonomous deployment of a UAV communications networks.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Bupe, Paul, Jr"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Science in Applied Engineering (M.S.A.E.)","degree_level":"Thesis (open access)","degree_discipline":"Department of Electrical Engineering","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Fernando Rios-Gutierrez","Frank Goforth"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2015,"date_issued":"2015-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2015-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:28:22Z","subjects":["ETD","Unmanned aerial vehicle","Emergency services","Telecommunication network","Global positioning system","Telemetry","Emergency disaster response","Aeronautical Vehicles","Electrical and Electronics","Hardware Systems","Systems and Communications"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/1253","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Fernando Rios-Gutierrez","Frank Goforth"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Bupe, Paul, Jr"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2015-04-14T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Department of Electrical Engineering"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis (open access)"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Science in Applied Engineering (M.S.A.E.)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["ETD","Unmanned aerial vehicle","Emergency services","Telecommunication network","Global positioning system","Telemetry","Emergency disaster response","Aeronautical Vehicles","Electrical and Electronics","Hardware Systems","Systems and Communications"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/1253"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The recent years have witnessed an increase in natural disasters in which the destruction of essential communication infrastructure has significantly affected the number of casualties. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina in the United States resulted in over 1,900 deaths, three million land-line phones disconnections, and more than 2000 cell sites going out of service. This incident highlighted an urgent need for a quick-deployment, efficient communication network for emergency relief purposes. In this research, a fully autonomous system to deploy Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as the first phase disaster recovery communication network for wide-area relief is presented. As part of this system, an automation algorithm has been developed to control the deployment and positioning of the UAVs based on a traditional cell network structure utilizing 7-cell clusters in a hexagonal pattern. In addition to the software algorithm, a fully functional control interface was developed which allowed for full control of the system both locally and over an internet connection. This system represents a novel approach for handling a large-scale autonomous deployment of a UAV communications networks.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Ultra-Fast, Autonomous, Reconfigurable Communication System"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Fernando Rios-Gutierrez","Frank Goforth"],"dc:creator":["Bupe, Paul, Jr"],"dc:date.available":["2015-04-14T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["The recent years have witnessed an increase in natural disasters in which the destruction of essential communication infrastructure has significantly affected the number of casualties. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina in the United States resulted in over 1,900 deaths, three million land-line phones disconnections, and more than 2000 cell sites going out of service. This incident highlighted an urgent need for a quick-deployment, efficient communication network for emergency relief purposes. In this research, a fully autonomous system to deploy Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as the first phase disaster recovery communication network for wide-area relief is presented. As part of this system, an automation algorithm has been developed to control the deployment and positioning of the UAVs based on a traditional cell network structure utilizing 7-cell clusters in a hexagonal pattern. In addition to the software algorithm, a fully functional control interface was developed which allowed for full control of the system both locally and over an internet connection. This system represents a novel approach for handling a large-scale autonomous deployment of a UAV communications networks.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/1253"],"dc:subject":["ETD","Unmanned aerial vehicle","Emergency services","Telecommunication network","Global positioning system","Telemetry","Emergency disaster response","Aeronautical Vehicles","Electrical and Electronics","Hardware Systems","Systems and Communications"],"dc:title":["Ultra-Fast, Autonomous, Reconfigurable Communication System"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Department of Electrical Engineering"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis (open access)"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Science in Applied Engineering (M.S.A.E.)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:28:22Z"}