Drones are revolutionizing incident response for police, firefighters and search and rescue teams by making their work significantly safer and more effective. Real time video can be shared with responders before they arrive on scene, scouting for hazards and allowing incident commanders to quickly assess a situation, while reducing risks to human life. Aerial data from high resolution cameras and thermal imagers can quickly cover expansive areas for search and rescue operations. Undoubtedly, drones are an enabling capability that saves lives and our first responders are increasingly reliant on them to conduct public safety missions.
This week I was down in Texas with the NUSTL team and responder partners from Colorado, Florida, Michigan, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, and Virginia to test four drones from DOD’s vetted Blue UAS list - Skydio X2D, Ascent Aerosystems Spirit, Parrot ANAFI USA GOV, and Teal 2 for a range of rural response scenarios.
With over a dozen products on the Blue List, these four platforms were selected by a focus group of state and local first responders as potentially meeting the diverse needs of law enforcement, fire, and search and rescue disciplines. This week we put these systems to the test under a variety of operationally representative conditions (and 105+ degree heat!)
Were the systems a match for the ubiquitous platform whose name shall not be spoken but probably starts with the letter D and ends with I ;) Stay tuned for our report later this summer.
AND, we’ll be back this fall with PART II of NUSTL’s Blue UAS Assessment, when we we’ll assess Blue List drones under even more challenging circumstances — the complex urban environment. City TBD — but if your city is interested in hosting this test, please reach out!
Thanks to Saadat Laiq and the MSU's Raspet Flight Research Laboratory team, DAGER Technology, LLC , Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service - TEEX, U.S. Army DEVCOM and, of course, our first responder partners for making this event a success — we couldn’t have done it without all of you. Team work making the dream work!
#NUSTL #SAVER #DHS Science and Technology Directorate #firstresponders #drones #bluelist #testandevaluation