When we talk about location, surveillance, rescue, or security tasks, we talk about areas of action where you must act in the fastest and safest way to guarantee the lives of people who are at risk. Many times, when an emergency occurs, response time is vital, an example of this is what happened in the 2015 Nepal earthquake, where thanks to the rapid action of drones, reconnaissance, search, and coordination flights were possible to rescue several people.
Drones have proven their effectiveness in emergencies. Their use in risky environments is expanding due to their advantages over traditional methods such as helicopter flights. Drones have greater maneuverability, move easily over uneven terrain, reach places that are difficult to access, capture high-definition images and significantly reduce response times.
Drones can also be used for crowd control, somewhere where the accumulation of people is critical, to monitor public buildings, for anti-terrorism controls, and can even be used for Judicial Police investigations.
Wonderful, isn’t it? Today at Simply Drones, we want to invite you to learn a little more about how drones could be applied in different areas and search and rescue tasks.
Drone Search and rescue. Image copyright: © Jason J. Hatfield
1. Search for missing people
In the field of rescue, drones have already been applied with success, and they are increasingly used in the search for missing people, this is because they can fly day and night and thermal cameras can allow trapped people to be found alive. One or more drones can search for missing people in open or hard-to-reach places such as mountainous or snowy areas. The small size of these UAVs makes it possible to have them always available in mountain stations, considerably reducing the search time.
Compared to the cost of a traditional helicopter, the low cost of these drones make them ideal for this task (a traditional helicopter is at least 30 to 60 times more expensive, and involves risk of human lives, high fuel consumption, etc.)
2. Transport emergency supplies
The transport of emergency material with drones (such as first-aid kits, medical kits, food, floats, or tools) constitute one of the primary tasks in rescue missions. The ability of drones to reach difficult places make them the perfect tool for transporting material in emergencies and on any terrain. For example, in a risky situation on a beach, drones could fly towards the victim, drastically reducing the response time of a first intervention. Immediately, the drone could release a life jacket that would automatically inflate when in contact within contact with water, thus saving the person in danger.
Sea rescue operation with a drone. Image copyright: 1001 Crash
3. Reconnaissance missions and risk situations
Having an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can be useful in reconnaissance missions, to plan police tactics, observe installations from the air or carry out escort tasks to a police operation.
The tasks of border surveillance and restricted access areas are particularly interesting, with the possibility of establishing a constant patrol in the area to be protected and carrying out automatic detection of risk situations, triggering a manual supervision alarm. In the same way, drones could also help to act early in situations where there is little knowledge of the terrain.
In espionage or information gathering tasks, drone cameras can be a great ally to know the risk in an unknown situation.
4. In fires or natural disasters
Drones allow emergency teams to explore, observe and control dangerous fires, they also allow assess the fire to determine its path and speed of travel, and any structures or areas with a risk in the path of travel quickly and effectively. This enables firefighting supervisors to send their teams exactly where they are needed.
In a fire situation, dual-purpose drone’s cameras are fully exploited, capturing thermal images to see through dense smoke, allowing the identification of certain hot spots and the source of the fire. The combination of all these technologies provides firefighters with valuable information to help them make the right decisions as quickly as possible.
Drone firefighting. Image copyright: Asia Pacific Fire
Drones not only allow us to be faster and more efficient in aerial thermography tasks, but they are also very useful when intervening in risky situations. Technology advances and every day we see how drones become indisputable allies in many areas of work. The new uses that are being given to drones are also a response to the needs that the world is having, as human beings we must think of technology as an ally to our daily tasks. Getting the best out of drones and helping others is a fundamental part of being responsible and contributing to the responsible use of drones, in Simply Drones, helping others is a fundamental part of our work, for this reason, we invite you to know our services, where we also want to help you in your solar construction, design and maintenance projects.
Silvia Monroy
Author