IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2016 - 68

that this technology will have a multiplicity of positive
impacts on society at large. However, many issues related to military involvement, public safety, security, and
privacy may arise.

Social Significance
The use of FANETs for a number of military, civilian,
and commercial applications is expected to deliver
favorable results in terms of reliable and delay-bound
data delivery. Traffic monitoring, remote sensing, border surveillance, disaster management, healthcare monitoring, and relay networks are some areas where
FANETs will be used (Figure 1).

First Line of Defense
UAV networks were used for search and rescue missions
for the first time during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and
later in the 2011 Fukushima disaster and in the April 2015
Nepal earthquake [2]. Many lives were saved and a large
number of evacuations were conducted, which demonstrated the validity of UAV network deployment worldwide
for emergency situations. The emergence of FANETs further strengthened the use of aerial networks for conducting perilous rescue operations. FANETs can serve as a
first line of defense in case of unforeseen natural disasters and calamities due to the rapid deployment of UAVs,
which allows the establishment of a network for obtaining
high resolution imagery. In such scenarios, UAVs can be
unleashed to affected areas to form FANETs, in lieu of

sending human rescue forces that may be put at risk.
FANETs can generate a rapid and promising emergency
response with timely location of survivors or recovery of
victims in case of a plane crash or shipwreck over deep
waters. According to UNICEF, 73 000 deaths occurred in
the disastrous earthquake that struck Pakistan in October
2005 [3]. Although the government, civil society, and
armed forces exhibited an exemplary immediate
response, due to the lack of technologically advanced aerial networks, instant rescue missions could not be carried
out in remote villages.

Reconnaissance Missions
The use of UAVs for surveillance and monitoring applications was established long ago. With the advent of
FANETs the concept is expected to be revolutionized in
terms of reliable and delay-bounded data delivery. In
surveillance applications such as border patrol systems
[4] and urban surveillance [5], UAVs play an important
role in minimizing human intervention. Aerial reconnaissance missions range from information collection on
battlefields to law enforcement activities. Surveillance
tasks may include collecting images of objects and sites
of interest spread over wide areas. For instance, in border policing a swarm of UAVs can detect not only
unplanned human disturbances, including those involving weapons and drugs, but also illegal border crossings. The information obtained can be immediately
processed and transmitted to intelligence control

Remote
Sensing

Traffic
Monitoring

Border
Surveillance

Disaster
Montoring

Relaying
Network

FIGURE 1. FANETs for social applications.

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

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june 2016

Managing
Wildfire

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2016