How UAVs Change Disaster Management, Civil and Nature Protection

DataRoot Labs is launching a research series that explore UAVs and their non-military applications across various industries. We start this series by highlighting companies that develop UAVs for catastrophes and natural disasters relief, wildlife protection, civil protection & law enforcement. Our research features the use cases and benefits of UAVs, the list of active incumbent players and rising startups, the investments and highlights current challenges and limitations.

Let’s look at each category one by one.

Civil Protection, Law Enforcement, Border Patrol

UAVs improve the efficiency of public safety operations by equipping the teams with reliable hardware that can gather high-quality information and deliver it in critical conditions. The use-cases are many and include anti-terror operations, border surveillance, coastal surveillance, anti-piracy operations, convoy security and perimeter security for large areas among others.

Most vendors in this section compete on performance, efficiency, durability, and such features as listening/overhearing potential, flight time, and load among others.

Thus, founded in response to the tragic 2017 Las Vegas shooting, BRINC company is deploying drones and other technologies that benefit the community. Its UAV - LEMUR S - features two ultra-sensitive microphones that pick up footsteps, opening doors, and human voices up to 23m away. It also can to survive high-energy crashes and continue operating afterward. Fully enclosed props allow LEMUR S to bounce off walls and push open doors (3). What makes LEMUR S particularly useful in search & rescue operations is that it can communicate and stream video through dense materials to ensure the safety of the pilot.

Another company - Ascent AeroSystems - designs and manufactures rugged “coaxial” drones for the industrial, public safety, and defense markets. Their unique cylindrical, portable, modular, and durable configuration is ideal for mission-critical operations in tough environments. With nearly 10 pounds available for batteries and payloads, their UAV Spirit features a highly streamlined airframe with a top speed of over 60 miles per hour that can operate in winds that would allegedly ground other UAVs (4).

Skyfront builds hybrid-electric drones that fly for 5 hours, a 10X improvement over battery-powered drones, for use in long-range infrastructure inspection, surveillance, and search & rescue missions (5). It boats very long ranges of up to 50 km and long flight times of up to 3-4 hours, all done in cold weather of up to -10C due to its G2K gas-electric hybrid propulsion system.

While the benefits of UAVs in this sector are clear, there are significant challenges and downsides associated with using drones for border control and civil protection such as:

1. Breach of personal privacy and individual liberties. If it ends up in the wrong hands, the footage could be used for blackmailing and scamming;

2. Legal and ethical framework. People leaving close to the borders do not consent to be constantly surveilled. Moreover, civilians will never know in which operations and to what end the footage was used;

3. UAVs can aggravate tensions over disputed borders as opposed to solving them.

Marine Surveillance, monitoring of waterways and underwater

Given that 71% of the planet is water, marine surveillance presents a vast niche with its own applications such as Sea Floor Exploration, Sea Border Surveillance, Commercial Fishing, Oil Rigs Maintenance, Navy Support, and Contamination Detection among others. In this category, most companies compete on high long-range factor, high res imaging, ability to fly low and high, and moisture protection.

The advantages of UAVs include reaching areas that are not accessible to men, remote sensing features, well-defined imagery, monitoring vast marine regions, and underwater surveillance. Studying aquatic life, underwater inspection, and protecting the marine ecosystem are a few features of marine surveillance that have proven to be cost-efficient, accurately measured, well-defined as well as effective, and reliable.

Operating in or close to the water presents, however, its own challenges such as a trade-off between the area covered and the pixel resolution, and requires calm and clear waters as waves impede the clarity of images making it hard to identify species or photograph the bottom of the ocean, and certain light intensity. Let’s look at a few companies in this space:

ALPHA technology includes multi-UAV systems, where several helicopters are flown concurrently to observe wide geographical areas. Depending on the sensor flown, it can read a license plate from 700m and identify the object from many km. Not only Alpha UAV helicopters can detect contamination in water, but they can also prevent ecological disasters. The Alpha 900 can monitor air quality emissions from ships. Its onboard DEDALO system analyzes air samples, records samples, and reports testing results in real time.

Another incredible company is Aquatic Drones which develops solutions in the field of water, river, port, nearshore, and sea monitoring. Their ASV Phoenix 5 can be fitted with a wide variety of sensors and payloads. The Phoenix’s strongly engineered hull is rugged, and all electronics are protected from moisture, allowing the Phoenix vessels to operate in harsh environments and inclement weather.

Deep Trekker provides fully assembled, tested, and ready-to-use industrial-grade submersible robots for complex underwater missions to perform regular net inspections, fish feeding monitoring, and husbandry. Deep Trekker ROVs and Pipe Crawlers are widely used for wastewater and stormwater inspections as well as for emergency scenarios or inspections in remote or confined spaces.

Risk of natural disasters, proactive monitoring of disasters

When teams operate in dangerous environments such as during a natural disaster or its aftermath, UAVs are used to save the lives of first responders and tactical teams. Unmanned aerial vehicles can access hard-to-reach places faster, cheaper, and with less risk than manual inspections. In this category, companies feature their heavy-lifting potential, durability, flight duration, and ability to operate in harsh environments.

The SDO 50 V2 of SwissDrones is capable of providing real-time data and visual information in case of natural disasters such as wildfires, earthquakes flooding, or hurricanes to help first responders and civil protection organizations with better situational awareness. It is a unique twin-rotor aircraft designed to replace manned helicopters at reduced costs, significantly lower carbon emissions (up to 95% lower), and without putting crews at risk when operating in challenging weather conditions.

For extreme heavy lifting and long flight duration, Parallel Flight Technologies’ Firefly aircraft can lift its own mass in payload, not including fuel, for over two hours. It is also fully redundant and can continue flying in the event of an engine failure. This opens new possibilities for unstaffed logistics, search-and-rescue, firefighting, and heavy sensor applications.

The Drone America’s NavX and NavX Tactical are based on a rugged, mid-sized, modular eight-rotor platform. Capable of carrying modular payloads up to 10 pounds while operating at high altitudes and in 25 mph winds, the NavX system has proven it can deliver during the most critical missions.

Emesent’s flagship product, Hovermap - ZOE, is a smart mobile scanning unit that combines advanced collision avoidance and autonomous flight technologies to map hazardous and GPS-denied environments. Its award-winning technology utilizes innovative hardware, advanced algorithms, and machine learning to automate the collection and analysis of the physical world (6).

Storm tracking and forecasting

Weather UAVs offer a major advantage in collecting weather data. Weather drones have maneuverability, can be flown at high altitudes of over 1 km (3500 ft), and can fly directly into the wind & storms to obtain data for a specific location at a specific altitude. They are equipped with sophisticated sensors to facilitate such weather metrics as temperature, humidity, and wind in real time. The weather forecasts based on this data are crucial for air traffic operations at airports, tornadoes or hurricane warnings, and climate change research among others.

Meteomatics develops weather drones that can reach an altitude of 6 km and have a deicing function for propeller blades to shake off the ice in temperatures below 0°C and adapted propellers to withstand high wind speeds and provide improved flight capability and reliable operation.

On September 30, 2021, Saildrone’s SD 1045 encountered Category 4 Hurricane Sam approximately 450 nautical miles NE of Puerto Rico. The vehicle remained in the storm for several hours, experiencing winds gusting over 120 mph and 50+ foot waves, and sent near-real-time data and video throughout the storm to Saildrone Mission Control. As a result, the scientists learned that fresh (low saline) water, likely coming from the Amazon River, may have fueled Hurricane Sam, keeping the ocean surface warm and allowing for more evaporation of energy.

Search and Rescue Operations

Every minute counts in Search & Rescue (SAR) operations for missing people. Drones can hugely facilitate the search and cover wider areas faster than tactical teams on the ground. Visibility, fast deployment, and detection mechanism including thermal detection are prime features of SAR-specific UAVs. Another benefit is that UAV deployment is much cheaper than using a helicopter.

Aerialtronics fast deployment solutions are equipped with infrared sensors to maximize the ability to spot individuals in distress. With real-time, augmented people and object detection capabilities, their UAVs allow them to search an entire landscape with drones for a fraction of the cost of helicopters.

Autel Robotics produces an EVO II Pro V3 UAV that is equipped with Sony's new 20-megapixel 1-inch CMOS image sensor for clear vision, a noise reduction mechanism that enables pilots to provide support in operations with minimal lighting or at night. With 19 groups of sensors, including 12 visual sensors, the main camera, and ultrasound, EVO II Pro V3 can build three-dimensional maps and plan paths in real time which makes it a reliable solution for search and rescue.

Although the technology is getting better, using UAVs for SAR has limitations - such as clarity of images of the scene, accuracy, and false positives making it difficult to conduct a precise operation. Furthermore, to have a successful mission with UAVs. teams have to undergo a lot of training and procedures and can take a long time to execute the mission. In a densely forested area, even the best drone will have major difficulty locating a missing person even with a visual or thermal camera.

Geospatial Mapping and Operations Support

UAVs offer a more efficient alternative to traditional GPS mapping tools. Aside from the time and money saved, drones can map out vast patches of land autonomously without exposing teams to unforgiving conditions.

CarteNav, backed by Lockheed Martin, develops C4 & ISR Mission Software - a highly adaptable robust software for meeting today's diverse operational requirements like multi-sensor control, geo-referenced moving maps, evidence reporting, SIGINT, custom mapping, and more.

Quantum Systems produce the eVTOL fixed-wing mapping drone for professionals. After Cyclone Harold hit Fiji, the Trinity UAV provided aerial mapping imagery to assist UN relief efforts to locate damaged and destroyed rooftops, fallen trees, blocked roads, and river flooding.

Wildlife Monitoring, Poaching

UAVs are invaluable in surveying wildlife by:

1. Helping detect and prevent poaching;
2. Monitoring animal count and location;
3. Identifying unusual trends in the behavior or health of animals;
4. Discerning and fixing animals trespassing into agriculture fields.

Some drone companies are even working on remote delivery of anesthetic darts into larger wildlife species and remote net launcher systems to capture birds and mammals.

While UAVs impact is invaluable in this niche, there are some limitations. One of the biggest concerns is that UAVs can disturb animals with their presence, especially easily disturbed species. Yet drones are still one of the least invasive methods to track and count wildlife, especially when compared to radio-enhanced collaring. Some other limitations include local aviation regulations that restrict the use of UAVs at certain altitudes and at night.

Rhino poaching numbers have escalated in recent years as the demand for rhino horns in China and Vietnam continues, and various methods have been trialed in a bid to combat poaching. Hidden cameras, GPS tracking, satellite imagery, predictive analysis, and hidden cameras have all been used by gamekeepers, but the method that consistently has the best results is the use of drones. We need to spot the poachers before they spot us, otherwise, they will ambush us (4).

A company Superwake is currently in the process of carrying out +1000 km sq. projects with various conservation agencies throughout Canada and the United States to iterate and improve their technology. By flying day and night, their solar + electric drones can provide Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) at a rate comparable to manned aircraft. They can also deploy multiple drones simultaneously to collect the data needed within a short window including in freezing and windy weather. They are currently trialing infrared cameras that can discern age and sex characteristics (e.g. antlers, throat bells, and body size) through thick canopy cover, without the need for ground snow (7).

The Drone Bird Company is leading the world in the development of bird-shaped drones. They specialize in the development of fixed-wing and flapping-wing systems to solve pest bird problems in a non-lethal way with our flapping-wing falcon. Its unique feature is its ability to chase birds away in the direction of choice out of harm’s way, without habituation. Their AVES Series Larus model is the ideal drone for covert surveillance as it is virtually undetectable and indistinguishable from the real bird, for both humans and animals. AVES is quickly gaining interest from police, special forces, secret services, and military services from all over the world because of its unique flying platform. It is also ideal because of its modular payload, and because it can be modeled after any species most common to the client’s region, anywhere in the world (8).

Damage by wild animals to cultivated fields is the main cause of profit loss for farmers in Europe, causing an average loss of 20% of harvests. Flox UAV’s can detect the various species present in the field day and night, and keep them away in an animal-friendly way.

Environment protection

UAVs are often used for monitoring air / land / maritime systems to observe environmental safety, more specifically for radiation detection, air pollution monitoring, forest fires prevention, and advanced wildlife protection and conservation.

A case in point is Atmos’ Marlyn UAV covers areas as large as 150 ha (370 acres) per flight, massively reducing your survey time. In addition, Marlyn is a one-time cost, resulting in a much cheaper option per Ha than manned-aircraft options. With Multispectral as well as Radiometric Thermal data, Marlyn is capable of seeing beyond the visual, providing new insights into plant health, animal behavior, and more, that were previously thought impossible. Marlyn provides total coverage of your particular area, including millions of individual & accurate data points. This allows you to glean a variety of data to both monitor and provide corrective actions to your study area.

Innovation landscape and a list of active players

In the innovation landscape and in the table below, we’ve collected a list of active UAV companies in their respective categories, their funding amount, and the investors backing them.

Remaining Challenges and Final Thoughts

With a clear set up of benefits, UAVs penetration of various industries will only accelerate. That said, a general set of challenges remain.

• Safety over flying unmanned aircraft in civilian airspace and densely populated areas;
• Personal privacy concerns of civilians who do not consent to appear in footage;
• Reliance on wireless communication makes UAVs prone to various attacks: UAVs can be hijacked and manipulated;
• Malicious use of drones by criminals opens new tactics that need to be countered;
• “Dehumanising” effect on treating civilians, especially during border control;
• Legislation in different countries restricts and limits the usage and research of UAVs;
• Technical limitations of drones such as flight time, payload, sensors, connectivity, and many others depending on a use case.

As technology gets better and more mature, most of the challenges will be managed more effectively. We expect to see more players entering the market, increased funding, and more industry-specific applications of drones. Finally, it is important to highlight that UAVs are not to be expected to solve all issues of a given industry or to replace humans. In most settings, they provide invaluable assistance but do not the replacement of human teams.

Sources:

(1). Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS)/drones registered in the United States.

(2). PwC report supports UK government drone strategy, predicts 900,000 drones by 2030.

(3). Military Equipment Use Policy.

(4). 2022 U.S. Drone Manufacturers - Comprehensive List.

(5). Drone surveillance for wildlife and game reserves.

(6). Airborne Laser Scanning > Hovermap.

(7). Superwake > Wildlife Surveying.

(8). About wildlife management services.