Press Release – U.S. Department of Transportation Issues Two Much-Anticipated Drone Rules to Advance Safety and Innovation in the United States

WASHINGTON December 28, 2020— The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today announced final rules for Unmanned Aircraft (UA), commonly known as drones. The new rules will require Remote Identification (Remote ID) of drones and allow operators of small drones to fly over people and at night under certain conditions. These rules come at a time when drones represent the fastest-growing segment in the entire transportation sector – with currently over 1.7 million drone registrations and 203,000 FAA-certificated remote pilots.

Remote ID will help mitigate risks associated with expanded drone operations, such as flights over people and at night, and both rules support technological and operational innovation and advancements.

“These final rules carefully address safety, security and privacy concerns while advancing opportunities for innovation and utilization of drone technology,” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao.

Remote ID (PDF) is a major step toward the full integration of drones into the national airspace system. Remote ID provides identification of drones in flight as well as the location of their control stations, providing crucial information to our national security agencies and law enforcement partners, and other officials charged with ensuring public safety. Airspace awareness reduces the risk of drone interference with other aircraft and people and property on the ground.

Equipping drones with Remote ID technology builds on previous steps taken by the FAA and the drone industry to integrate operations safely into the national airspace system. Part 107 of the federal aviation regulations currently prohibits covered drone operations over people and at night unless the operator obtains a waiver from the FAA. The new FAA regulations jointly provide increased flexibility to conduct certain small UAS without obtaining waiver.

“The new rules make way for the further integration of drones into our airspace by addressing safety and security concerns,” said FAA Administrator Steve Dickson. “They get us closer to the day when we will more routinely see drone operations such as the delivery of packages.”

The Remote ID rule (PDF) applies to all operators of drones that require FAA registration. There are three ways to comply with the operational requirements:

1. Operate a standard Remote ID drone that broadcasts identification and location information of the drone and control station;

2. Operate a drone with a Remote ID broadcast module (may be a separate device attached to the drone), which broadcasts identification, location, and take-off information; or

3. Operate a drone without Remote ID but at specific FAA-recognized identification areas.

The Operations Over People and at Night rule (PDF) applies to Part 107 operators. The ability to fly over people and moving vehicles varies depending on the level of risk a small drone operation presents to people on the ground. Operations are permitted based on four categories, which can be found in the executive summary (PDF) accompanying the rule. Additionally, this rule allows for operations at night under certain conditions.

The final rule requires that small drone operators have their remote pilot certificate and identification in their physical possession when operating, ready to present to authorities if needed. This rule also expands the class of authorities who may request these forms from a remote pilot. The final rule replaces the requirement to complete a recurrent test every 24 calendar months with the requirement to complete updated recurrent training that includes operating at night in identified subject areas. 

Both rules will become effective 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. The Remote ID rule includes two compliance dates. Drone manufacturers will have 18 months to begin producing drones with Remote ID, with operators having an additional year to start using drones with Remote ID.

Freefly and Auterion announce the release of Astro

 Los Angeles, California – 30 September – Freefly Systems, leading drone manufacturers and Auterion, the largest open source drone software platform announced the releases of the Astro Enterprise Drone Solution. In partnering, the two companies have combined their respective expertise in hardware and software to build and release the Astro – the best multi use enterprise drone for utility, telco, and infrastructure companies, as well as drone service providers and first responders.

The Astro will provide enterprise and government customers a highly capable workhorse drone for mapping, inspection and first responders to capture media, automate processes, and streamline data flows through Auterion’s enterprise-ready software platform.

With a 2 lb payload, the Astro can achieve a 30 minute flight time, supports over nine payload options including the industry leading 60 megapixel Sony α7R IV, folds into a backpack, is weather sealed, and cloud connected. The Astro is engineered and built by Freefly around the Auterion Skynode reference design and is powered by Auterion Enterprise PX4 software on board and by Auterion Mission Control on the ground station. The platform provides customers’ with fleet management, 4G LTE connectivity for online workflows, predictive maintenance, geotagging, and the Auterion SDK for enterprise developers. 

With 10 years of experience in developing drone hardware systems and with thousands of tested flight hours, Freefly has a reputation of building the industry’s toughest drones as well as a track record of offering the best customer support in the industry.

The team behind Auterion has been developing software for drones for over 10 years, and provides an ecosystem of payloads and radio links, expertise in connected workflows for enterprises, while driving open standards to support innovation and scalability within the industry.

The partnership between Freefly and Auterion delivers a drone system that is greater than the sum of its parts. Freefly relentlessly pursues hardware excellence that exceeds their customers expectations, while Auterion enables the user to tap the full power of the Astro by creating a cohesive software ecosystem and user experience. 

Tabb Firchau, CEO of Freefly says, “Partnering with Auterion to bring the Astro to market allowed us to aim much higher than we could have on our own. As a small self-funded startup of 35 people we have huge ambitions and often end up having to cut scope from the end product.  Working with Auterion allowed us to deliver even more than we originally planned. The open architecture and collaborative nature at Auterion enabled several key pivots during the product development process, ultimately landing on a product that is more flexible, efficient, and ultra adaptable. We can’t wait to see what users will think!”

“Sony is excited about Auterion-Freefly team’s usage of our new SDK to integrate the Alpha 7R IV full-frame camera into their new enterprise drone system,” said Neal Manowitz, Deputy President of Imaging Product and Solutions Americas for Sony Electronics. “We will continue to evolve our software to meet the growing demands of commercial clients, ultimately allowing them to capture, measure and create in ways never before possible.” 

Lorenz Meier, Auterion co-founder and CEO said, “The release of Astro is the culmination of more than a decade of work to make open source the default in the commercial drone industry. Auterion Enterprise PX4 is giving businesses a trusted, known base and better integrations than any of the proprietary alternatives.”

The Astro is available for pre-order today with first units shipping in Q4 2020. 

For more information about the Astro visit www.freeflysystems.com/astro. For more information about the Auterion software platform visit www.auterion.com/enterprise.

 

Drones and Image Analysis Help Locate Gravesites

Loc8 is pleased to announce that it will be collaborating with Texas State University and the University of Missouri on a $280,000 grant to utilize drones to locate human remains and detect clandestine graves. This grant, which was awarded by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), continues the groundbreaking research conducted in 2015 by Gene Robinson, president of GRC Consulting, and the Texas State Anthropology Department.

Dr. Daniel Wescott of the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State states that this two-year project is challenged with documenting the ways drone technology and their payloads (various multispectral cameras) can be used and how it differs with traditional ground-based studies. Loc8 is collaborating with the project to bring its patent-pending image analysis algorithms into the field of aerial forensic science.

Pilot for the NIJ project Gene Robinson stated, “The ability of Loc8 to scan down to the individual pixel level in each image is going to change the way remote sensing is used in search and rescue (SAR) missions and crime scene investigations. The Loc8 software has only been available since 2019 and we have already realized successes in the field. We are just now scratching the surface in the different ways Loc8’s image analysis algorithms can be used.” The NIJ project is slated to handle a wide array of remote sensors from standard RGB, to near infrared (NIR), to thermal (FLIR) and multi-spectral imagery to detect subtle changes in the environment resulting from human remains on or under the ground from the vantage point of a deployed drone.

The NIJ Grant project data collection flights began in late January 2020. Over the next two-years, the flights are scheduled to continue on a near daily or weekly basis depending upon the stage of the study. The research is being conducted in the Texas State University’s 26-acre open-air forensic laboratory. Under the NIJ project, eight to ten science pledged body donation volunteers (cadavers) will be studied under various scenarios designed to mimic ground conditions of undiscovered clandestine sites. The University of Missouri is tasked with the image/data analytics and will act as the repository for all the data collected.

Robinson added, “The Texas State Forensic Anthropology Research Facility replicates conditions and environments of some of the tough cases we have encountered in the past 15 years. We can really bring the current technology to bear in a scientific way that will be a tremendous benefit to both law enforcement and the search and rescue community.”

The research has already begun at the Texas Hill Country facility and will simulate different environments and seasonal effects on the forensic investigative process. The project will identify best practices for drone utilization, determine the most effective sensors, and explore the advantages of using an image analysis software like Loc8 to enhance the effectiveness and thoroughness of the search and rescue or recovery investigative process.

As part of the NIJ Project, Gene Robinson will be cataloging the changes in the color palettes of the volunteer subject’s skin, soft tissue, and skeletal remains during the natural decomposition process. These color palettes will then made available as sample data sets for Loc8 subscribers to use during their search and rescue/recovery missions. The Human Remains color palette dataset is one of many datasets Loc8 is developing to assist subscribers.

Loc8 (www.loc8.life) is a patent-pending image scanning technology that analyzes the individual pixels in a digital image (still or video) by searching for colors that match a userdefined color palette. Once the defined pixel color(s) are detected in the scanned images, Loc8 reports the latitude, longitude, and the altitude of the geographical location of the detected item(s).

Loc8 was originally developed to scan digital images (still or video) quickly and thoroughly collected during search and rescue/recovery (SAR) missions. However, since its release, the Loc8 algorithm has been tested as a tool in crime scene investigation, accident reconstruction, debris field mapping, precision agricultural management, wildlife population management, and utility infrastructure inspections, to name a few of the many potential applications.

New DJI Drone Rescue Map Tracks Drone-Assisted Rescues Worldwide

DJI, a leader in civilian drones and aerial imaging technology, today launched an online reference to track events around the world when a drone helped rescue someone from peril. The Drone Rescue Map, available online at https://enterprise.dji.com/drone-rescue-map, shows how more than 400 people around the world have been helped by drones in more than 200 emergencies, and will be continually updated as new rescues occur.

The DJI Drone Rescue Map has been compiled from news stories and social media posts from authoritative sources such as police departments, fire departments and volunteer rescue squads. Each entry on the map includes the location and date of the incident, a brief description, a link to the original story or post, and an easy way to share those incidents online. To make the map as definitive as possible, DJI encourages public safety agencies to share additional drone rescues so they can be included.

“The DJI Drone Rescue Map is now the best global reference for how effective drones are in emergencies, and allows the world to see the tremendous impact drones have had in finding lost people, shortening searches, reducing risks to rescuers and saving lives,” said Romeo Durscher, DJI Senior Director of Public Safety Integration. “Public safety workers already know how drones are revolutionizing their work, and now the rest of the world can see their amazing stories in one place. The DJI Drone Rescue Map honors the incredible rescues they’ve made, and will allow everyone to see how drones help save people in the future.”

The DJI Drone Rescue Map includes instances of drones finding people lost in forests, fields and mountains, often in darkness using thermal imaging cameras; dropping life preservers to people struggling in water; locating boaters stranded on remote waterways; and helping rescue people who were at risk of harming themselves. The map does not include incidents when a drone is simply used as part of a larger search process; instead, a drone must have directly located, assisted and/or rescued a person in peril.

Many of these incidents illustrate how drones can find missing people more quickly than a traditional ground-based search, allowing victims to be brought to safety faster, more easily, and with less risk and burden for their rescuers. In some of the incidents on the DJI Drone Rescue Map, the drone helped accelerate a rescue and allow first responders to operate more efficiently. In other incidents, the drone clearly made the difference between life and death.

“I know how important drones are for people in distress, because a drone saved my life,” said Jason Mabee, a Maryland man who was injured and near death last year in a local park when he was found by a volunteer drone pilot. “My family and I are eternally grateful that a total stranger was able to use his drone to find me. It’s comforting to know that drones are helping so many other people around the world too, and I hope the DJI Drone Rescue Map demonstrates just why drones are so important in emergencies.”

“Drones have changed the game for finding and saving people lost in difficult conditions, and twice last year drones made the difference for us in finding and saving stranded hikers in dangerous terrain at night,” said Kyle Nordfors, Drone Team Coordinator for Weber County Search and Rescue in Utah. “Drones helped make these rescues possible while reducing risk and strain on our volunteer rescue force. We’re excited to see our successful efforts represented on the DJI Drone Rescue Map, and we hope it shows people all over the world how important drones are for saving lives and protecting the rescuers.”

PC Tom Shainberg, Senior Drone Pilot of the Alliance Drone Team for the Devon & Cornwall and Dorset police forces in England, said: “The Alliance Drone Team is proud to be a leader in adapting drone technology for police incidents, and we’re glad to see our successful drone rescues – such as finding a vulnerable man huddled near the edge of a cliff – being shared wider, along with similar accomplishments from other public safety agencies from around the world via the Drone Rescue Map.”

The map includes rescues recorded in 27 countries across five continents, and shows how drone technology has moved from an experimental concept to standard public safety equipment. The first drone rescue was recorded in Canada in 2013, the next one was more than a year later, and early examples of drone rescues were as likely to be performed by helpful bystanders as by professionals. Today, drone rescues are reported about once a week on average, and public safety agencies routinely share those success stories on social media.

“Hundreds of examples now make clear that making drones widely accessible, with low barriers to entry and subject to a progressive set of operational regulations, leads inevitably to saving more lives around the world,” said Brendan Schulman, DJI Vice President of Policy & Legal Affairs. “The DJI Drone Rescue Map is a powerful resource for policymakers to understand the impact drones have on protecting vulnerable people in their own communities, and the detrimental consequences of policies that would restrict or discourage the use of drones, or increase the cost of using them. Regions with less favorable operating rules for drones appear to have substantially fewer reports of drone rescues.”

DJI has previously released two detailed reports on how drones have been used to rescue people from peril around the world. The first, in 2017, counted 59 people rescued by drones, and the second saw the global total rise to 124 by 2018. DJI monitors global news coverage, drone-related social media, and other sources to find new examples of drone rescues, but understands that many similar incidents may not yet be recorded on the map. Anyone who knows of a drone-involved rescue not included on the DJI Drone Rescue Map can submit it through a form at the bottom of the map page. These submissions will be reviewed for publication on the map, so DJI asks anyone submitting information about a rescue to respect the privacy rights and expectations of the persons involved, and to not share any confidential or sensitive information about agency operations.

Canoers rescued from Bridgewater’s Town River with the help of a drone

The Enterprise June 22, 2020

BRIDGEWATER — Two men whose canoe was damaged on the Town River were rescued with the help of drone thermal imaging.

“Deploying the drone from the deck of the fire boat and using thermal imaging gave responders the visibility they needed to locate the individuals,” Bridgewater Police Chief Christopher Delmonte said in a statement.

The father of one of the men called West Bridgewater police around 8:30 p.m. Saturday and reported that the canoe his son and friend were in was damaged and taking on water.

Bridgewater police and fire units went to the Lake Nippenicket boat ramp to launch their rescue boat. An officer and firefighters went to the northern part of the lake to enter the Town River.

First responders were able to talk to the canoers, but were not immediately able to identify their exact location, according to police. Officer Chris Rondeau launched a drone from the boat to search the area with thermal imaging.

From footage of the rescue, the 22-year-old men were seen waving at the drone when it found their location, which was about 200 feet away from the boat.

The men were rescued from the chest deep part of the river and brought back to shore, where they were evaluated and reunited with families.

Delmonte said the weather conditions were favorable for the rescue and the canoers were not injured.

“This rescue effort is a great example of the Bridgewater police and fire departments working together,” Fire Chief Thomas Levy said in a statement. “I commend the quick action of the individuals involved with this water rescue.”

Drone Leads Rescuers to Overdue Backpackers in Aspen

The Aspen June 5, 2020

Two overdue backpackers were located Wednesday with the help of a search and rescue drone after deep snow unexpectedly delayed the pair’s 27-mile long journey through the Maroon Bells Wilderness Area.

According to Mountain Rescue Aspen, the two males in their 20s set out for a three-backpacking trip on Sunday. The backpackers intended to hike the Fravert Basin, also known as the Four Pass Loop. When the pair did not return on Tuesday as expected one of their family members reported them overdue. 

A massive search was launched for the overdue backpackers, including the use of a drone, helicopter, fixed-wing aircraft, and  10 search and rescue personnel.

A drone flying at about 500 feet in altitude spotted the overdue backpackers at about 5:20 p.m. near Crater Lake. They were found tired, but uninjured.  Despite the snowy conditions slowing down their progress, rescuers say both backpackers were “well equipped” to spend an extra night in the wilderness.

Cops Releases New Report On The Use Of Drones In Policing

A Report on the Use of Drones by Public Safety Agencies—and a Wake-Up Call about the Threat of Malicious Drone Attacks

The Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) division of the Department of Justice recently released their report on the use of drones in policing. There’s a lot of good information here for police departments, broken into 3 sections: Pre-Implementation Considerations; Establishing a Drone Program; and Malicious Use of Drones. In particular the report is geared toward helping departments maintain transparency and communication with the community about the use of drones. Read More.

Utah Climber Rescued From Remote Cliff With Assistance of Drone and Helicopter

The search and rescue team launched a drone to identify the man’s location and relayed to DPS helicopter crews to hoist him from the cliff. (Uintah County Sheriff’s Office)

Fox News May 25, 2020

A Utah climber who fell and cracked his head while scaling a cliff by himself on Sunday was rescued after he regained consciousness, and nearby campers heard his cries for help, authorities said.

The 52-year-old man, whose name has not been released, was climbing up a slot in the cliff near Jones Hole National Fish Hatchery, by the Colorado border, when he fell an unknown distance, the Uintah County Sheriff’s Office said. He told rescuers he didn’t know how long he was unconscious before he awoke and yelled for help.

The group of campers, which included a member of the sheriff’s search and rescue team, heard the stranded man’s calls. They were unable to pinpoint the man’s location because his cries echoed off the cliff walls. They called authorities around 1:40 p.m., setting off a five-hour rescue operation.

"The area he was climbing in is out of the way. You wouldn't really expect someone to be climbing there," Sheriff's Sgt. Dustin Cheshire said. "If it hadn't been for the camping group with a Wasatch County search and rescue member who heard this guy yelling and screaming, it's unlikely anyone would have found him."

The sheriff’s office sent a search and rescue team and requested helicopter crews from both the Utah Department of Public Safety (DPS) and Classic Air Medical.

The Classic Air Medical crew spotted the man after arriving, but the steep terrain prevented them from reaching him, the sheriff’s office said.

The search and rescue team launched a drone to identify the man’s location and told the DPS helicopter crew. The DPS crew was able to reach the man and hoist him from the cliff.

Drone and Ropes Help Rescue Drivers Trapped in River

Well done firefighters, It’s good to see positive use of drone.



May 18, 2020
Firefighters use a drone and ropes to rescue drivers trapped in river due to sudden water rise in Zhangjiajie, China.

Loc8 Software Helping Find Missing Persons with a Drone / UAS – Another Tool in the Toolbox

As a follow on to our blog post Drones for Search and Rescue (SAR) – Another Tool in The Toolbox,  where we discussed how incredibly useful drones are.  A search and rescue drone used by emergency services, such as police, firefighters or volunteer rescue teams, is ideal for searching over vast areas for missing persons and crime victims in need of rescue and in any environment.  Search times can be significantly reduced while limiting potential risk to the party being rescued as well as rescuers.

In 2018 DJI reported that 133 people around the world were rescued after being found with drones.  Also, of note is that 2018 marked a new milestone in public safety drone use, as four people were rescued by drones in three separate incidents on two continents on a single day.  

These numbers are undoubtedly higher as more search and rescue organizations discover the benefits of drones.  While many search and rescue drones are outfitted with infrared or thermal and high-resolution cameras to help assist in finding missing people.  This is not always the case.  Many of times, Searcher use their drones with their regular cameras to take aerial photos of a large area where people are reported missing or lost.

This is where the challenge begins, how do you search, sift or squint through often hundreds and hundreds of aerial photos looking for the missing individual(s)?

According to Gene Robinson. “The squinting process is where searchers comb through photos one at a time for any details that might point to recently disturbed earth or a walking trail, and for the colors of the clothes the missing person was last seen wearing. Different colors and textures represent potential clues that could lead to a recovery. A speck of blue on the screen points to a color that is rarely found in nature, and in Texas, when people go missing near ranch land, blue is often the color of the jeans they're last seen wearing.”   A SAR study shows humans are only capable of spotting a target 30% of the time when reviewing digital images.

Loc8’s software image scanning process can dramatically increase your success rate in finding your target!  Loc8 is a software solution that empowers search and rescue agencies and emergency responders to quickly scan images from aerial drone footage to locate missing people or objects by using image scanning technology that isolates specific pixel clusters.  Loc8 can go through thousands of images, much faster than is humanly possible, to locate specific color values that might represent blue in the missing persons jeans.  Once Loc8 identifies a target in an individual image it will circle it in red for quick and easy identification by the searcher.

The final product includes a map with an aerial view and a quality report that is produced with mission specific data with Latitude and Longitude coordinates of the image.  This can be passed on to searchers in the field to locate the target.

Loc8’s software is a very exciting advancement in search and rescue that I have now utilized on training and actual searches and may help your SAR team find missing persons faster.  Loc8’s software should be - another tool in the toolbox!

Hollywood Drone Operators Win Recognition as Cinematographers in Arbitration

International Cinematography Guild and Drone Operators celebrate victory over Warner Bros. in arbitration

Many drone operators consider themselves to be cinematographers or photographers. An arbitrator in a Hollywood labor dispute has agreed, granting drone cinematographers on a motion picture or film the same rights as other cinematography professionals.

Hollywood Reporter April 29, 2020

Five individuals working on a TV show should have been covered under an agreement between cinematographers and producers, an arbitrator ruled April 21.

Thanks to COVID-19, many are losing their jobs while others are now worried about maintaining health insurance. But one group in Hollywood may have just taken a step toward realizing employee benefits. That would be Hollywood's drone operators, who were the subject of a lengthy fight in arbitration over classification and jurisdiction.

After Warner Bros. hired drone technicians in 2015 for Rush Hour, a TV series based on the film franchise, the International Cinematographers Guild initiated arbitration in an attempt to get them health and pension benefits afforded to employees under its collectively bargained agreement with producers.

On Friday, near the end of a virtual meeting with its members about COVID-19, the guild shared "good news," that the arbitrator had largely ruled in its favor.

ICG insisted its labor agreement covered those who worked in "all phases of motion and still picture photography,” including members of a drone crew, who they asserted should be afforded the same treatment as aerial directors of photography, camera operators and camera technicians. They argued that drone technicians make similar creative decisions regarding camera placement and shot execution.

Warner Bros. saw these individuals closer to helicopter pilots who haven't been traditionally covered under the ICG agreement. The studio further told the arbitrator that drone technicians were really subcontractors, and any decision holding otherwise could mean WB is acting as an unlicensed drone operator. That could raise trouble with the Federal Aviation Administration.

According to ICG, the arbitrator found April 21 that Warner Bros. should have covered five members of the drone crews working on Rush Hour under the terms of the guild's basic agreement. One drone pilot was not covered, the arbitrator ruled, because he piloted the drone while an operator worked the camera and, unlike another drone pilot, did not exercise artistic skill in operating the drone.   

ICG further shared with its members, "The arbitrator found that the employer had the burden to prove that it was subcontracting for work that was not covered by the Local 600 Basic Agreement, and that Warner Bros. did not meet that standard. "

The arbitrator's award is said to not be final with damages still yet to be determined.

Because the Rush Hour case was in arbitration and given the fact-dependent nature of these types of disputes, the legal precedent may be limited for now. Nevertheless, with the possibility of settlement and more claims against studios to come, the ranks of people calling themselves cinematographers could be one of the few occupations growing at this difficult economic time.

Drones: Incident Response & Decision-Making

A good read, Where Wayne Baker emphasizes that the use of drones for emergency incidents must be balanced with proven human methods.

Standard aerial imagery from drones enhances scene size-up, and thermal aerial imagery helps to improve searches and to mitigate risks to firefighters. That said, the technology shouldn't replace ground-level strategies and tactics.

Firehouse.com  Wayne Baker May 1, 2020

Throughout my career as a firefighter/paramedic, I trained and prepared extensively to respond to a variety of incidents. Later, as a fire chief and an emergency management coordinator, I prepared to coordinate and facilitate incident response at a broader level. 

No matter the incident or my role, having enough actionable data and information to make the right incident action plan was a challenge. I sought tools, techniques and technology that would make my crews better informed for efficient and safe operations.

For me, drone technology and its associated tools and tactics became one of the most significant advances for this information-gathering on incident response.

Although the adoption of this technology by public safety has been rapid, many questions still surround the use of drone technology in incident response and decision-making, for example: What tactics and techniques exist for utilizing drones on incidents? What tools can be used in information-gathering? How do you analyze and act upon data? Of increasing importance, how do we better maintain aircraft? Answers to these questions will continue to evolve as the technology continues to improve. Read More

FAA Announces Regulatory Relief Updates for Part 107 Recurrence Exam Testing

Update; This was filed to day and is scheduled to be published in the Federal Registry on May 4, 2020.

April 29, 2020

The FAA has published a wide-ranging Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR) (PDF) that provides regulatory relief to pilots, crew members and other FAA certificate holders who have been unable to comply with certain training, recency-of-experience, testing, and checking requirements due to the COVID-19 public health emergency.

In Summary; Under the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 outbreak, eligible remote pilots who would normally establish recency of knowledge in accordance with §107.65(a) or (b) may complete online training as an alternative if required to establish recency between April 2020 and June 2020. The remote pilot may complete the FAA-developed initial or recurrent online training courses at www.faasafety.gov one time to establish knowledge recency for six calendar months.

However, because the courses do not include all of the knowledge areas that a remote pilot is required to be tested on every 24 calendar months, the remote pilot will need to establish knowledge recency in accordance with §107.65 at the conclusion of the six calendar months.

Here is what you will need to do;

Register at www.faasafety.gov.

Enroll in either;

ALC-451 Part 107 Small Unmanned Aircraft System (small UAS) Initial
ALC-515 Part 107 Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (small UAS) Recurrent

It will take approximately 2 hours to complete this material, to include; introduction, course content, downloadable reference materials, course review and the take the test.

Remember, this test is for drone pilots that need to take their recurrent knowledge test between April 2020 and June 2020 only.  The renewal is only temporary and will authorize you to operate a small unmanned aircraft system under Part 107 for a duration of six calendar months from the month in which the you completed the online training course.  You must take and pass your standard Unmanned Aircraft General (UGR) test before those 6 months are up.   

Please review the complete text from the FAA’s COVID-19 Relief if you have further questions.

What are the Benefit of Oblique Aerial Drone Imagery for Search and Rescue?

Have you ever thought of collecting oblique videos for search and rescue?  Watch this great video from 2018 where Jon McBride VP of Technology at RMUS discusses an alternative drone search technique for searching in heavy vegetation and or terrain.  The technique involves the drone flying a pattern collecting video vs still images with the camera in an oblique position vs nadir.  Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

High-altitude drone captures rare view of Mount Everest

I'm amazed that Renan Ozturk pulled off photographing Everest in a stunning 360-degree panorama by drone at 23,000 ft in 2019.  It's an incredible achievement considering the odds against him. Extreme wind, elevation, and cold are often no goes for a drone to fly.  From what I understand, it was a Freefly Alta X , drones like this aren't typically designed to fly half that elevation. Cold batteries don't produce enough lift for safe takeoff. And drones will not come back if the wind exceeds the drone's max airspeed. I lost one this way.

Click on image for larger photo

IBM, Microsoft, Aerovironment and Nvidia Pit AI Against Wildfires

AeroVironment has been working with Nvidia and Microsoft to deliver a prototype AI-enabled system that could help bring advanced wildfire management.

 In 2018, California experienced its worst wildfire season on record, with uncontrolled fires causing unprecedented death and devastation. 2019 saw another difficult season, with millions of residents experiencing precautionary power shutoffs. With much of the world self-quarantining and the 2020 fire season looming, Nvidia’s virtual GTC 2020 hosted a panel highlighting how AI practitioners are working with forest stewards to bring fire management into a new, data-enabled era.

Firewatch duty was traditionally served by fire lookouts on towers overlooking forests, but moving that role into the 21st century is easier said than done. In order to be truly useful to first responders in a wildfire, an AI model needs to be able to detect smoke – not fire – very, very quickly. After all, by the time a fire is large enough to be easily spotted, it’s typically less containable, and if the smoke is reported too late to act on it, the fire will have had substantial time to grow.  Read More

A “UAS Primer For Public Safety”, Public Aircraft Ops vs Part 107

The linked information below dated January 2020 was provided by the FAA as a courtesy to public safety entities looking to get operational with Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), and is a compilation based on many conversations the FAA Public Safety team has had with successful and highly reputable UAS practitioners.

The information is provided as an aid to public safety entities looking to get operational with drones; to help them understand what to do to operate safely in the National Airspace System. This information shall not be construed as official FAA guidance, regulations, or policy, which are contained in other official documents.

Go to the complete; FAA UAS Primer For Public Safety

Overcoming the Challenges of Starting a Public Safety Drone Program

Lynwood Fire Department Shows the Value of Drones for Small to Mid-Sized Agencies

DJI Enterprise April 4, 2020  

In the fall of 2017, in Peru, Illinois, an armed suspect has barricaded himself inside a suburban home after firing at police officers. The apparent suspect’s emotional instability, the fact that the suspect was former military with explosives experience and the threat he made of placing IEDs around the house are making the situation worse. Well over 150 public safety personnel surround the house. Fortunately for the tactical teams and emergency response crew, the suspect is willing to negotiate.

Calling for Help

As the day wore on, the incident commander knew that the coming night would only complicate the situation. He asked his team what options they had. Chief Ed Rogers, of the Utica Fire Department, immediately thought of the Lynwood Fire Department and their UAS operations program. Thermal imaging paired with a clear aerial view of the house would provide acute situational awareness in case the suspect made a run for it. 

After receiving the call, Keenan Newton, Lieutenant and UAS coordinator of the Lynwood FD, arrived on site before dusk. As he and his team began unloading their equipment, the suspect told the negotiator that his phone was low on battery. Negotiators knew they had to keep talking with the suspect to help ensure a peaceful outcome. It was a tense moment. Everyone anticipated the situation intensifying unless the suspect was provided a new phone. Something had to be done.

The first attempt to deliver a phone with a law enforcement robot failed. As it had a technical failure. The incident commander looked at Chief Rogers and asked if the phone could be delivered with a drone. “Of course we can, we’re firemen,” Chief Rogers responded.

Keenan got to work immediately. Utilizing a drop release system, a remote-controlled drop mechanism used for deliveries, on a DJI M600 Pro drone, he would attempt to swing the phone into the suspect’s bathroom window. Two Inspire 1 drones were flown nearby to help spot and guide the drop, as well as record the delivery. The cell phone was tied to a rope, and within minutes the drone was hovering over the house. Approaching carefully, Keenan successfully positioned the cell phone just outside of a window and swung it towards the bathroom window until the suspect grabbed it. 

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Search And Rescue Teams Use Drone To Help Injured Hiker - How Does Your SAR Team Utilize Drones?

While looking back at some recent search and rescue operations that utilized drones, I came across a rescue on January 20^th and an earlier one in December in Snow Canyon State Park, Utah.  Read on about a couple of methods used by search and rescue crews.  

Photo from video by: Mike Thomas

Snow Canyon State Park, Utah, a drone helped rappel a hurt hiker more than 400 feet during a daring rescue in Snow Canyon State Park Sunday.

It’s the first time the Washington County Search and Rescue team used a drone this way, but likely won’t be the last.

Search crews helped a 65-year-old woman who got hurt hiking on the top of Island in the Sky around noon. She had fallen several feet and could not put weight on her foot.

To bring her down, they’d need to be creative.

“We were trying some different ideas,” Darrell Cashin said.

The problem? It would take four men to carry up the rope needed to rappel the woman down nearly 40 stories.

A special gun that launches the rope up fell about 100 feet short.

So they put 660 feet of twine on a drone and sent it up.

“We gave that a shot and it actually worked,” Cashin said. “The canister was light enough for the drone to handle, didn’t have too much wind and so we flew the drone all the way up to where the guys were literally right to their hand. Disconnected that, flew the drone back down.”

At the bottom of the mountain, the twine was attached to the main rope and was pulled up the bluff.

“They just rappelled her off down to there and we carried her out,” Cashin said.

In December, a drone was used as a spotlight to help rescuers see better in the dark while helping a lost hiker on the same mountain.

The drones also help spot lost hikers, send messages and transport small items such as a radio or bottle of water, according to Cashin.

“We are finding new ways to utilize them and find their capabilities and limitations and new things we can do with them," Cashin said.

Three other people who were with the injured woman also rappelled down the bluff with the help of rescuers.

Has your SAR team found any new ways to utilize drones in search and rescue, tell us about it in the comments?

Above SoCal, NASA and GA fly SkyGuardian to prove UAS ability

Above SoCal, NASA and GA fly SkyGuardian to prove UAS ability @UASMagazine: NASA’s goal to help accelerate routine UAS operations into the national airspace has moved one step closer with this successful flight demo, according to NASA officials.

Daytona Beach Police Using Drones To Enforce Coronavirus Closures

ClickOrlando.com April 7, 2020

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Daytona Beach Police Department is now equipped with two more drones to add to its six, but the loaner drones police are using to enforce closures and other social distancing measures during the coronavirus pandemic are equipped with intercoms.

Drone company DJI loaned the drones to the department through a disaster relief program. Police said the flying pieces of equipment will help them disperse crowds and keep people out of all city parks, which are temporarily closed to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“We’re reducing the officer having to go out there, walk into the park property, walking into a crowd of people, share those germs back and forth just to deliver a message that, 'The park’s closed. Don’t be in here,’” said Sgt. Tim Ehrenkaufer, who heads the department’s Unmanned Aviation Systems Unit.

The department showed drone footage from one of its 30 missions over the last week. The video shows people leaving parks throughout the city and Ehrenkaufer said people fully complied. Police also demonstrated their own $27,000 drone that’s equipped with a drop hook feature that officers use in situations similar to when a beachside bomb threat was reported last year. Ehrenkaufer said it’s also helpful to drop off lifesaving materials.

“That could be anything from the life preserver that you’ve seen us drop into the lake, to somebody drowning, to a box of gloves, medication,” he said.

That same drone also has a FLIR cam that can read a person’s body temperature. Police said they will be discussing if it should be installed in their front lobby to help minimize the spread of COVID-19.

“Let’s say if you have a 103 fever, that will come in handy with letting us know from at a glance, are you somebody who possibly has the virus?" Ehrenkaufer said. "Do we need to make sure you have extra precautions and make sure that you have the extra equipment that you need?”

The department hopes the two loaner drones will officially be theirs in the future because it could possibly be another protective layer for an officer's safety.

“I think in terms of keeping officers safe, I think it’s very important,” Ehrenkaufer said.

UAV Deployments in Disaster Relief Webinar

Best practices for deploying UAVs in disaster relief scenarios, including the COVID-19 response

Attend this webinar to learn how public safety agencies have been assessing new relief measure that integrate drones into their workflows during a crisis.

When; 11 AM PDT, Wednesday, April 15, 2020

How are drones impacting disaster relief efforts by public safety agencies across North America and the globe? Find out from DJI’s public safety experts on how this technology is currently being used, what methods have been tested in the field throughout the United States, and what this could mean for efforts in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic.

Romeo Durscher, Senior Director of Public Safety Integration at DJI, and Wayne Baker, Director of Public Safety Integration at DJI, will be discussing how agencies have been assessing new relief measures that integrate drones into their workflows during a crisis.

Here’s what to expect:

·         Applications of drone technology by public safety agencies in previous disaster relief efforts

·         A view of how nations across the world are using drone technology amidst the pandemic

·         A review of the use cases that have been implemented in North America so far and which ones are proving to be effective

·         Looking ahead to how this could impact future disaster responses

·         Open Q&A period

→Register for the Webinar

Request Emergency GIS Help From The ESRI Disaster Response Program for COVID-19

To help public health agencies and other organizations jump-start their response to COVID-19, Esri is providing the ArcGIS Hub Coronavirus Response template at no cost through a complimentary six-month subscription of ArcGIS Online with ArcGIS Hub Basic. ArcGIS Hub is a framework to build your own website to visualize and analyze the COVID-19 crisis in the context of your organization's or community's population and assets.

Request access to ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Hub Basic by completing the form.

Drone shots show New York's Javits Center as a makeshift hospital

TV Houston April 4, 2020
New York City Emergency Management on Friday (April 3) released drone footage of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, a venue used by New York Comic Con and the New York International Auto Show, as a makeshift hospital.

The U.S. military and federal personnel will operate the hospital to help the city grapple with a flood of COVID-19 patients.

New York has become the epicenter of the U.S. epidemic with more than 47,000 confirmed cases in the city.

Anchorage Police use drone to find missing hiker

KRCR TV  April 5, 2020

Police in Anchorage, Alaska, deployed a drone to help them locate a hiker who had gone missing in a wooded area on Saturday, March 28.

According to police, dispatchers received a call from a woman who went off-trail in a wooded area and was no longer able to see her footprints in windy conditions.

Police sent officers who were in the area to find the woman on foot, while another officer sent up the drone. Once deployed, the drone located the woman within 15 minutes, using an infrared camera. The drone officer was able to tell the woman his colleagues were on the way. “She was really happy to hear the mysterious voice in the sky,” police added.

“All’s well that ends well! We got her out safe and sound,” police wrote.  See video

Do you have a story of drones coming to the rescue or assisting your agency?  Please share in the comments.

Watch as Nottinghamshire Police find missing boy, 12, with help from drone team

Nottingham Post April 4, 2020

Police located a 12-year old boy who had gone missing overnight - thanks to help from the force drone team’s ‘eyes in the sky’.

Officers began their search for the boy after he was reported missing just after 8pm from the Oxton area of Nottinghamshire on Saturday, April 4.

The force’s drone team were deployed to help officers soon after, with the drone’s pilot helping to direct officers to the boy who was found safe just over an hour later.

Video shows the drone hovering above when it picks out the boy in the dark.

The drone team help fellow officers on the ground by supporting everything from drug warrants and river rescues to policing large-scale football matches.

Nottinghamshire Police’s Deputy Chief Constable, Rachel Barber, said: “In the short time that the team have been in the sky, they have proved to be invaluable in supporting officers on the ground and the drones are now a vital part of operational policing in our county where it genuinely is making a difference each and every day.

“This incident is yet another success story for the team and, in this case, it has given us the edge in helping to locate someone who we had genuine concerns for the safety of much sooner than had we been relying solely on traditional search techniques.”

Do you have a story of drones coming to the rescue or assisting your agency? Please share in the comments.

First Responders Assess Drones for Search and Rescue Missions

Drones buzz like bees, hover like hummingbirds, and accelerate like race cars. Besides being used for play, drones, properly known as unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), have quickly become vital pieces of technology for both private and public organizations. First responder organizations rely more and more on them to enhance their response capabilities and better execute their missions. But how can first responders be sure the drones they are buying meet their specific mission needs?

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) can help.

In November 2019, S&T’s National Urban Security Technology Laboratory (NUSTL) assessed small, commercially available drones for priority needs of first responders through its First Responder Robotic Operations System Test (FRROST) program. The needs were identified by the S&T First Responder Resource Group (FRRG), a volunteer working group of experienced emergency response and preparedness professionals from across the U.S. who guide research and development efforts. The assessment was performed under realistic field conditions at Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center in Mississippi.

“We are focused on the first responder community – fire, police, and emergency management departments – and we are assessing small UAS,” said Cecilia Murtagh, FRROST Project Manager. “They are much cheaper than manned aircraft, which makes them an ideal tool for response agencies.”

Background

S&T initiated the FRROST program in 2018 to help the first responder community evaluate drones in real-world field conditions under simulated scenarios to inform their purchases. FRROST is modeled after S&T’s System Assessment and Validation for Emergency Responders (SAVER) Program, managed by NUSTL. It assists emergency responders in making procurement decisions by producing reports based on objective assessments and validations of commercially available technology. FRROST focuses on drone technology and uses assessment methods developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

In June 2018, a focus group of first responders, experienced in piloting drones for different missions, convened to provide evaluation criteria for the FRROST assessment. The focus group selected several drones to be tested and evaluated in realistic field conditions.

Becoming the ‘right hand’ of first responder organizations

D.J. Smith from Virginia State Police operates the remote control of a Falcon 8+ drone by Intel. Small drones offer tremendous potential for emergency response missions. Thanks to recent technology advances, they have become more effective, more affordable and easier to fly. They can not only keep responders safer, but also provide opportunities for missions impossible for manned aircraft, such as exploring inside buildings and tunnels.

“Drones are a force multiplier for first responders,” said Murtagh. “It gives them eyes on a situation quickly with generally less manpower; for example, you could fly a drone over diverse terrain or wide areas and try to find a lost hiker, which would be labor intensive for field teams.”

Law enforcement responders use drones for tactical operations, building searches, traffic crash investigation, pursuit, and more. For example, the Plano, Texas Police Department used a drone to look for an armed suspect hidden in an apartment complex.

“The subject was actually firing rounds out of the apartment, so we couldn't get close enough to look in,” said Lieutenant Glenn Cavin of the Plano Police Department. “The UAS was able to look through the window and provide intelligence.”

After floods, emergency managers use drones to survey actual damage, so they send help where it is actually needed without risking responders’ lives.

“We have launched our drone to find a missing older adult,” said Randy Frank, Director of Marion County, Kansas Emergency Management. Small counties like Marion use the same drones for multiple missions. “Drone use is only limited to your imagination.”

Large counties like Orange County, California, need different drones for their various terrains, including metro city, wildland-urban boundary, harbors and more.

Tom Haus from the Los Angeles City Fire Department sets up video to capture the operator interface while the participants fly the NIST Test Methods.“During a brush fire, a drone can map out where the hot spots are, thus helping the firefighters to put that hot area out,” said Frank Granados, Firefighter Paramedic at the Orange County Fire Authority, CA.

First responders assessed drones at Camp Shelby

In November 2019, nine first responder drone pilots from across the U.S., some of whom are quoted in this article, assessed four small drones in fields and mock urban settings at Camp Shelby. The drones weighed between 1.9 and 13.5 pounds. The pilots, with law enforcement, firefighting and emergency management backgrounds, participated in three different search and rescue scenarios: lost hiker (in an isolated field), post-flood disaster (in the urban setting and an adjacent field) and a twilight scenario (in the urban setting). The drones demonstrated different capabilities and participants provided feedback to NUSTL after taking turns flying them. NUSTL coordinated with NIST for this testing event, using a test course that NIST developed for drone assessment and pilot training and testing.

“All participants are getting an opportunity to run the drones through those standard test lanes to see how they match up against what they would like to see in a mission ready, small unmanned aerial system,” said Captain Tom Haus of the Los Angeles Fire Department, who assisted NIST with FRROST’s standard testing and scenarios.

Falcon 8+ drone hovers over a car with a cluster of NIST buckets to look for ‘stranded flood victims,’ as part of the FRROST search and rescue scenario.Wooden stands stood in a wide field next to the urban setting at Camp Shelby. Clusters of white two-gallon buckets like giant bell-shaped blossoms adorned the stands. Other clusters were attached to windows, roofs, and even a car. Inside each bucket on the bottom was a sticker with a letter surrounded by a circle. Such stickers could be seen on other parts of the buckets and poles. The drones had to hover over each bucket, like honeybees over a flower, and take accurate pictures.

“These visual acuity tests, just like the eye charts at the eye doctor, are designed to allow the operator to align his/her small unmanned aerial system with that bucket” said Haus. “If you are not aligned, the bucket itself keeps you from seeing into the bottom.”

Participants assessed how well the drones could be stabilized, how easily they could be flown, and how well their payloads functioned. Payloads included 30x zoom cameras for distant visualization and thermal cameras for twilight and night.

During the twilight testing, drones demonstrated their thermal imaging cameras and participants watched on a monitor what the drone was ‘seeing.’ One of the pilots moved the drone vertically, hovered it over the car, a roof and in front of a window, all with clusters of buckets. This simulated how a drone could be operated to look for survivors after an emergency or disaster, such as a hurricane.  

NUSTL representative Cody Bronnenberg (right) records feedback from UAS Trainer Coordinator Christopher Stockhowe (left) from the Virginia Beach Fire Department after he flew the EVO drone by Autel Robotics.FRROST took place over four days, with a different drone assessed each day. A large drone with a 42-megapixel camera and an infrared camera was tested during the last day. It was designed for professional inspection and surveying of bridges and other areas. The first responder evaluators determined that it could be paired together with a smaller, faster drone. In this scenario, the evaluators used the large drone for overall incident awareness and then used a smaller drone for closer inspection.

Future outlook

The feedback provided by participants in the FRROST event will be documented in a final assessment report and shared nationally with the first responder community. NUSTL’s report will provide unbiased results that can help first responder organizations with their procurement decisions.

Moving forward, another S&T project called Joint Unmanned Systems Testing in Collaborative Environment, or JUSTICE, assesses drones and sensors for the Homeland Security Enterprise. JUSTICE is managed by the S&T Air Based Technologies Program and a team of experts from the Mississippi State University Raspet Flight Research Laboratory.

“Putting the drone in your hand, running it through its paces, seeing how it performs in a real scenario helps me determine if that's going to fit our mission and save us money,” said D.J. Smith, Technical Surveillance Agent with the Virginia State Police. “That’s critical for us.”

Read More and Watch the FRROST Video

Do you have a story of drones coming to the rescue or assisting your agency? Please share in the comments.