UAV-Mounted Cloudlet Systems for Emergency Response in Industrial Areas

The advancements in Internet of Things (IoT) and embedded systems, 5G networks and next-generation wireless systems, and embedded and distributed artificial intelligence are empowering Industry 4.0. In this new industrial era, smart autonomous and connected systems will improve efficiency, reduce cost and pollution, and increase productivity and safety in industrial 4.0 based applications. Nevertheless, the new generation technologies mentioned above have not been explored to improve safety in multiplant and industrial zones. In this article, we shed light on the design of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)-assisted systems for emergence response in multiplant and industrial zones. We discuss the important contributions of UAV-mounted cloudlet systems to support SAR missions by providing computation, communication, and storage resources to first responders, surveillance of the affected area, real-time monitoring of SAR members and victims, and caching nodes to improve content delivery among SAR teams. Besides, we design an envisioned UAV-cloudlet reference system for emergency response in industrial areas. Moreover, we highlight the current challenges that are being addressed in the literature aimed at making possible the efficient use of the designed UAV-mounted cloudlet systems for emergency response. Finally, we point out some future research directions that require further investigation.