SAHARA

SAHARA is an autonomous search-and-rescue drone for disaster zones, with Meta AI as its co-pilot. After an earthquake or flood, rescuers lose hours searching rubble on foot, often without knowing where the hazards are. SAHARA flies a probability-guided search on its own and finds casualties with on-board RGB and thermal detection. It puts every casualty and hazard on a live map for the command center. For this hackathon we added a Meta AI layer on top of our existing drone simulator (ArduPilot + Gazebo + ROS 2). Responders can now just talk to the drone: "Two people are reported trapped at the collapsed police station. Check it and watch for smoke." The drone then: - Moves that area up in its search - Flies there and looks for the hazards it was asked about - Writes a triage note for each casualty it finds - Reports back in plain language It ends with a situation report (SITREP) the rescue team can act on.