Git-R-Drone
The emergence of Rescue Drones
HLSensory Overload: We’re Everywhere You’re Going To Be
The same drone technology that has been used to hunt down and kill terrorists in Iraq, Pakistan, and the Sudan is not limited to overseas hunter missions. Military drones have been approved for tracking people in the good old U.S. of A. Now first responders and hobbyists are getting in on the action with some welcome results. However, you can be assured that these drones won’t be limited to searching for lost waifs in the forest. It won’t be long before hobbyist, big brother, organized crime, and petty criminals will all be looking for ways to manipulate and exploit these drones to their benefit while infringing on whatever shreds of personal privacy we have left. Also, the practice of uploading drone footage to the Internet to be combed over by thousands of geeks in their moms’ garage will yield untold horror for many unwitting victims whose only desire is to be left alone. So, let’s explore the application of this technology and its potential for serving the general pubic’s good.
Just a few weeks ago, a 10 year old boy who was hiking with his family disappeared in eastern Utah for more than 24 hours. Near a remote mountain lake, Paul Lake was lost at an elevation of nearly 10,000 feet and used skills that his father taught him to keep him warm at night when temperatures dipped into the upper 30’s. In an article by Lindsay Whitehurst of the Associated Press she says, “Personnel from neighboring counties as well as the Ute Indian Tribe joined the search for the boy.” Finding a small boy is no small challenge, where covering miles of mountainous terrain, even with dozens of people assisting, can last days. In the end the boy was found unharmed after an intensive search and was reunited with his family. However, not all stories end this way.
According to an article in the Huffingtonpost, lost hikers simply don’t know what to do. The article suggests staying put as the best strategy saying, “Most people who go missing in the wilderness are often found dead within a mile of their last known location. There are many reasons for this, but one key reason is worthy enough to explain. Humans have a dominant side on their body, which often forces them to naturally walk more toward one direction over the other. This means that out in the wilderness we will walk in circles — literally.” That makes sense, but wouldn’t staying put give you an incredible sense of helplessness?
Besides sending out trained search and rescue personnel, authorities are looking to new and emerging technologies to assist with finding lost people. In an article found on ozy.com, “Lost? Send in the Drones and Robots!” by Renee Morad, drones and robots are now being used to help authorities to find people. Morad suggests that the opportunities are endless, where the added advantage of using drones far outweighs the use of costly helicopters. Besides the cost difference, the quality and capability of a drone exceeds that of the helicopter. For example, drones can fly lower which provides far better quality images and video. Morad suggests that thousands of high-resolution pictures and hours of video could be analyzed instantaneously by volunteers around the country until the missing hiker was found.
What might take authorities hours and days to comb through images or video taken from a helicopter, could take minutes if volunteers were force multipliers individually combing over different parts of the video after it was uploaded to the Internet. Saving time means saving lives when it comes to finding missing people.
Morad goes on to say, “What’s more, some of these drones can run missions to deliver payloads with survival items like food, cellphones, radios and blankets to hikers in need.” Imagine what could be delivered- medication for someone who has had an allergic reaction, water, GPS, etc…or possibly an emergency batch of tacos!
You don’t have to look far to find examples of drones assisting with search and rescue efforts.
An 82 year-old man is thankful that a drone became part of the search last year. After officials had searched for him for 3 days, a drone found him after 20 minutes. Luckily for him, someone nearby had the drone and was happy to join the search party.
And in 2013, Canadian Mounties claim that the first person’s life was saved by a police drone. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the province of Saskatchewan used a small drone to locate and treat an injured man whose car had flipped over in a remote, wooded area in near-freezing temperatures. The injured driver managed to call 911 but had no idea where he was. After searching for him for several hours with a helicopter with night vision, authorities turned to the drone for help by sending the UAV to the last recorded location from the drivers cell phone’s GPS.
Without the help of the drone, searchers would not have been able to locate the driver until daylight. And, this may have cost him his life. The driver was found in a ball at the base of a tree unconscious, near death.
If the police can find a missing person by sending a drone to the last known location of a cell phone’s GPS, perhaps it’s possible they can use them to search for criminals. Just this summer, two inmates escaped a maximum security correctional facility in upstate NY. Considered highly dangerous, authorities dispatched hundreds of law enforcement officials across miles and miles of terrain. Nearly 3 weeks later, the 2 convicts (1 killed, 1 shot and injured) were found. Luckily no one apart from the criminals was hurt. Had drones been dispatched to the area, captured thousands of images, could search volunteers across the country assist with combing through these images looking for clues? The force multiplier here is incredible and the opportunities are endless. Perhaps this could have taken just a few days vs. 3 weeks.
And what about criminal suspects? Does law enforcement have policies and procedures to use drones from a surveillance perspective that considers state and federal laws and the Constitution? In 2012, a North Dakota man contested that the warrantless use of a UAV that assisted in his arrest was outrageous governmental conduct. In essence, in an agreement with local law enforcement Homeland Security used a predator drone for surveillance in monitoring the suspect and his family members who were also charged. The surveillance ensured that they didn’t leave the property and were unarmed during the arresting raid. More on this story can be found here: but you know what you need to know. The Supreme Court has spoken and domestic use of surveillance drones is approved.
Whether it’s searching for a hiker lost in the woods, trying to find a lost Alzheimer’s patient, an injured person in a remote area or a convict on the run, the use of drone technology can help save lives. For these types of searches, minutes matter and the use of drones thus far has shown that they have been able to locate missing persons more quickly than that of trained search and rescue task forces.
The FAA ought to look more closely at laws and regulations for the use of drones in search and rescue missions as authorities need this life saving technology in their toolbox. Earlier this year the FAA proposed rules that says no
drone night flights. In a search and rescue mission, to have to wait till daylight can mean the difference of life or death. If my child was lost, I would want the search to go on regardless of day or night, and I think the FAA might too. Just keep them out of my back yard.
