Abstract—This study develops an innovative Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) framework incorporating GPS and Landmark Detection to refine relief delivery processes in emergency scenarios, particularly in expansive regions with intricate conditions. The system leverages extensive positioning capability of GPS to navigate UAV toward target zones, subsequently employing Landmark Detection to ascertain precise drop-off locations. Notably, an Archimedean spiral trajectory algorithm is deployed under unstable GPS conditions, enabling UAV to expand search coverage and enhance landmark detection capabilities, even in obscured areas. Experimental results in Vietnam reveal a precision drop rate of 98% at an altitude of 5 m, ensuring accurate delivery. Additionally, the landmark detection success rate under unstable GPS conditions achieved 100% when the overlap ratio of camera frames reached half the width of frame (0.5 W), demonstrating high efficacy in mitigating target omission risks. This approach not only minimizes delivery time but also enhances operational flexibility, facilitating rapid and precise UAV access to critical relief zones. The proposed system exhibits significant potential to deliver effective solutions for emergency relief missions, meeting stringent demands for speed, accuracy, and stability in time-sensitive delivery operations.

Keywords—Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)-based delivery, GPS-independent navigation, spiral search algorithm, UAV emergency delivery

Cite: Cao-Ky-Long U and Nguyen Khac Toan, "Emergency UAV Delivery Framework: A Hybrid Approach to GPS Navigation and Visual Landmark Detection," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol. 14, No. 4, pp. 374-383, 2025. doi: 10.18178/ijmerr.14.4.374-383

Copyright © 2025 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).