PhD Dance: UAV Routing Problem for area monitoring in a disaster situation

It is not a secret that in the 21st century, information is crucial. In a disaster scenario this statement becomes even stronger, since up-to-date information might save lives.
In the project "Collaborative microdrones" we use small aerial robots to provide such information to the rescue team. It is an overview image of a disaster scene and is updated over time.
This thesis is about an algorithm to compute paths that the robots will follow. The video explains how the whole system works. The Base Station on the ground (lady in black) constructs the paths and commands a Drone (lady in red) where to fly. Following this path the Drone takes pictures at the specified points and sends them to the Base Station. Whenever the Drone runs out of energy, it can renew it at the Station. Eventually the whole area is covered possibly multiple times if necessary.
The advantage of my algorithm is that it is fast (can be executed during the rescue mission) and considers real-life constraints like limited energy. More information on this work and our projects can be found at uav.lakeside-labs.com/
Music by Jan Morgenstern - wavemage.com/