Aloft Introduces Automated SGI Waivers in Aloft Air Control, Streamlining Access to Restricted Airspaces

 Aloft Technologies, Inc. (Aloft), a leader in advanced drone software solutions, is thrilled to announce the integration of Automated Special Government Interest (SGI) Waivers into its Aloft Air Control platform. This new feature is set to revolutionize how drone operators access restricted airspaces, significantly enhancing operational efficiency and compliance with federal regulations.

Automated SGI waivers are available today for all Aloft Air Control enterprise customers.

The Automated SGI Waivers functionality simplifies the complex and time-consuming process of obtaining necessary permissions for drone operations in sensitive or restricted areas. This development reflects Aloft’s ongoing commitment to innovation and its dedication to supporting the operational needs of its clients across various industries, including public safety, emergency response, and infrastructure inspection.

Jon Hegranes, CEO and Founder of Aloft, commented on the new feature, saying, “We understand the critical nature of time-sensitive operations, especially in scenarios that involve public safety and emergency responses. Integrating Automated SGI Waivers into Aloft Air Control not only streamlines the approval process but ensures that our clients can deploy their drones quickly and legally, even in the most restricted airspaces. This capability is about empowering our users to focus more on their mission-critical tasks and less on bureaucratic hurdles.”

The Automated SGI Waivers are designed to interact seamlessly with existing features within the Aloft Air Control ecosystem, providing a comprehensive solution for airspace management that includes pre-flight planning, real-time traffic alerts, and post-operation analysis. This integration ensures a smooth, intuitive user experience and upholds the highest safety and compliance standards.

Key benefits of the Automated SGI Waivers include:

-Reduced Approval Times: Drastically cuts down the waiting period for gaining airspace access, facilitating rapid response and operational readiness.

-Enhanced Compliance: Ensures that all drone flights are compliant with current FAA regulations, minimizing legal risks and enhancing public safety.

-Streamlined Operations: Integrates with the overall flight management system to provide a unified workflow from planning to execution.

This innovative feature is expected to set a new benchmark for operational efficiency in drone technology, reflecting Aloft’s role as a pioneer in the industry. With one click, users can transform an existing mission in Aloft into an auto-generated SGI form ready to email to the FAA’s SOSC Office.

For more information about Automated SGI Waivers and Aloft Air Control, please email sales@aloft.ai or contact your Aloft customer success representative.

About Aloft Technologies, Inc.:
Aloft Technologies, Inc. specializes in developing advanced drone software solutions, empowering businesses and government entities to manage their drone operations with enhanced efficiency, safety, and compliance. Based in Syracuse, NY, Aloft continues to lead the way in airspace and fleet management technology. Aloft’s UTM network and Air Control platform is utilized by hundreds of government and public safety agencies.

EMMU Aerials Public Safety and Insurance Industry Drone / UAS Training and Services

 

EMMU Aerial provides public safety agencies and the insurance industry with drone / UAS training and services for search and rescue, law enforcement, firefighting, disaster response, claims inspection, damage assessment and more throughout the U.S.

First Responders Reflect on Lessons Learned from Surfside

First responders and specialized units rushed to the Champlain Towers South within hours after the building collapsed on June 24, 2021. 

“To get two full-sized urban search and rescue teams there within the first 24 hours is unheard of,” said Dave Downey, the former Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief, who now works with the Florida State Fire Marshal.

Downey, who was in the command post at Surfside, said being able to communicate effectively with all the different response teams was key as well as getting rescuers the tools they needed.  

“...As a tool broke, we just moved it off and moved a new tool in and they repaired the tool that was broken. There was no interruption. We had never done that.”

In addition, they learned that heavy cranes need to arrive almost as quickly as the search teams. 

“You can’t work a collapse rescue without cranes, without excavators and making sure that you know where these are and how to get them into your area,” Downey said.  

The rescue teams also used drones. 

“We were able to fly a drone into the underground parking garage that was completely pancaked and to be able to get around vehicles and do as close to a search as we could for any victims,” Downey said.  

The team members who worked the site told NBC 6 that the technology the Israelis brought to the scene made a difference.  

 “Almost a reenactment of the building, how it fell, where people could possibly be in the rubble,” said Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Capt. Erik Sada. “It was kind of a new way of searching and finding people we have not had in the past.”

Downey added, “They were able to map that out and help us line up stairwells, rooms, apartments, and they were really spot on.” 

When asked what’s the ultimate takeaway, Downey said, “Through experience, through training you always get stronger … This type of thing, as tragic as they are, they make us stronger for the next time.”

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.

How GIS is Used in All Phases of Emergency Management

While EMMU Aerial specializes in drones for public safety and emergency response, our initial background came from years supporting emergency operations with geographical information systems (GIS).  

GIS Lounge February 20, 2020
In this article from the GIS Lounge, Brian Sekita discusses how GIS is vital to all phases of the emergency management process.

Natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions have impacted the globe since the beginning of time. Technological improvements have exponentially improved the global community’s ability to respond to the challenges presented by unexpected disasters. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a framework for gathering, managing, and analyzing data. Incorporating GIS into the disaster response framework has improved planning, response times, collaboration, and communication during the most challenging dynamic circumstances. Large scale disasters require extensive amounts of geospatial information regarding regions affected, infrastructure, and resource requirements. Developments in GIS have provided agencies with the ability to collaborate more efficiently and effectively. Emergency managers resolve natural disaster challenges using the Comprehensive Emergency Management (CEM) approach. CEM is broken down into four phases: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery (Agency, 1995). 

Mitigation

Mitigation strategies prior to natural disasters are essential to reduce loss of life and property by reducing the impact on populations both within the U.S. and abroad. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), continuously works with local governments, states, and tribes regarding hazard mitigation plans with short- and long-term focus. These efforts have the overall intent of increasing education and awareness, building partnerships for risk reduction, aligning risk reduction objectives, prioritization of efforts, and to communicate priorities (FEMA, 2020). Flood hazard mapping updates are part of the Risk Map program. This program identifies flood hazards, assesses flood risks, and provides accurate data to stakeholders and partners. These maps are dynamic and can be updated as terrain and environmental conditions change. FEMA shares this data in publicly accessible overlays powered by ArcGIS. In addition to flood mapping, overall mitigation strategies are tracked using the same technology, with 87 percent of the population currently residing in areas with approved mitigation plans (FEMA, 2020).

Preparedness

Emergency preparedness is the actions taken in advance that develop operational capabilities, enabling a more efficient, effective response to an emergency. One successful use of GIS during natural disaster preparedness is the overland surge from hurricanes also known as the “SLOSH” model, used by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)  (NOAA, 2020). SLOSH models use current wind speed, distance, and direction in combination with precipitation predictions and topography to determine possible locations at risk of flooding during a storm. These efforts are critical to evacuation planning, leading to more effective communication and decision making at all levels. NOAA provides interactive open source National Storm Surge Hazard Maps for the US, Puerto Rico / Virgin Islands, Hawaii, and Hispaniola.

 Response

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), supports natural disaster response by providing subject matter experts in areas such as engineering, biology, hydrology, geology, emergency management, real estate, contracting, and geographical information systems experts. Together the USACE staff supports FEMA’s emergency support function # 3 by providing technical expertise, construction management, and reach back capabilities critical during time sensitive real-world emergencies. Geographic information systems are a key component utilized by USACE to communicate real time information in a context that can be accessed by agencies collaborating to respond to time sensitive missions. USACES employs GIS to produce sharable digital overlays with information such as hydrologic and hydraulic models, flood inundation mapping, consequences models, and data management. GIS development and coordination is not only executed at the disaster site, but globally using the Modeling, Mapping and Consequences Production Center (MMC) with SME’s across nine districts globally (Dalton, 2018). An example of this occurred during Hurricane Florence, where USAES played a critical role as part of the National Response Framework (NRF). During this major hurricane, USACE and the MMC utilized the National Weather Service (NWS) precipitation forecasts to develop flood mapping to include simulations of operational releases of water from USACE dams and impacts on levees within the threatened area (Dalton J. C., 2016).

Crowd Sourcing Example

Natural disaster information has traditionally been obtained from National Mapping Agencies, news organizations, and emergency agencies operating in the vicinity of the event. As technology continues to connect the globe, the potential of crowdsourced geographic data has been viewed as a powerful device to supplement authoritative data, when that data is unavailable, outdated, or incomplete. During the research project, Evolution of Emergency Copernicus services (E2mC), designers developed a component termed “Witness” which enables data acquisition, analysis and storage. Emergency management has successfully used this application in numerous real-world emergencies such as the central Italy earthquake and the Haiti Hurricane of 2016 (Havas, 2017).

Recovery

The recovery phase occurs after initial relief has been provided with the goal of returning property, society, and individual livelihood back to normalized conditions. Recovery also allows government organizations and agencies the opportunity to access natural conditions, updating data and systems to represent geological changes that resulted from the natural disasters. One such technology that enables a clear concise spatial representation of the Earth’s surface is LiDAR or Light Detection and Ranging (National Ocean Service , 2020). LiDAR was used during Hurricane Sandy, one of the deadliest and most destructive hurricanes of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season. NOAA and USGS coordination enabled the collection of high resolution topographic and bathymetric elevation data. The LiDAR data was utilized to support studies aimed at hurricane recovery and construction, annotating changes in the earth’s surface elevations due to storm surge, validate storm-surge inundation predictions, and ecological assessments. Elevation data developed by the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013 were added to the 3DEP and developed into NOAA’s “Digital Coast”, a centralized user friendly information collection that is cost effective with high accuracy (GIS Contributor, 2017).

Advancements in technology and the importance of utilizing geographical information systems to aid in disaster response cannot be overstated. GIS is vital to all phases of the emergency management process, leading to a faster, more concise equipped response team. GIS integration into disaster management enables higher levels of planning, analysis, situational awareness, and recovery operations. The end state is economic savings, increased collaboration and a safer population.

Eye in the sky – the role of drones in oil spill management

Offshore Technology December 2, 2019

Having eyes on the ground, quickly, is essential to any effective disaster management plan. Having them in the air, however, looks set the be the next big thing in the offshore oil and gas industry. We consider the critical role drones can play in the minutes and hours after an oil spill.

An oil spill is a disaster – environmentally, commercially and in PR terms, not to mention the significant danger they can put offshore crew in. BP’s Deepwater Horizon in the Mexican Gulf in 2010, believed to be the worst ever recorded, spilt 210 million gallons of oil into the region over a period of several months. In more recent months, a spill of crude oil off the coast of Brazil has impacted thousands of miles of the country’s north-eastern coastline.

UAVs and what they might mean for the future of spill management

The best way to tackle such events is to respond quickly and effectively. However, doing so is a major challenge for oil companies and other responders. Can the latest technologies help?

Terra Drone believes it has proven they can. One of its subsidiaries, Terra Drone Angola, says it has successfully demonstrated how drones can be used as a surveillance and reconnaissance tool for oil spill incidents, speeding up the decision-making process in the event of a spill. During the oil spill response exercise conducted by a major oil and gas producer, an oil spill was simulated off the coast of West Africa to assess how drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can be used to quickly collect critical information to relay to responders.

“Environmentally friendly dye was released at the surface of the sea a few hundred meters from the nearest floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) platform using a surfer,” explains Terra Drone Angola’s operations director, Siva Keresnasami. The dye simulated an offshore spill with the aim of demonstrating how UAVs can support response measures.

“We wanted to promote the adoption of UAV technology as a tool to be used to enable effective management and monitoring of actual oil spill incidents,” Keresnasami continued.

An emergency response vessel was positioned a few hundred metres from the simulated spill, onboard was a trained team of UAV pilots operating an octocopter fitted with an RGB camera. Keresnasami says they anticipated one of the biggest challenges, the sun’s glare from the surface of the water, fitting the camera with a polarizing filter to reduce the effect.

What do UAVs have to offer in oil spill management?

The selection of UAV was critically important to the success of the project. The small and often crowded deck of a response vessel renders fixed wing drones unsuitable for this type of mission. Therefore, Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) UAVs are ideal for this type of scenario. Keresnasami adds UAVs equipped with Extended Visual Line of Sight (EVLOS) or Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) capabilities are best suited for this type of work.

EVLOS refers to an unmanned vehicle which can be operated at distance, extending beyond the line of sight of the pilot with so-called spotters relaying its flight information to the controller. BVLOS, an increasingly popular capability, enables flights to go even further. They are controlled by a pilot who is informed about their position, altitude, speed and direction by onboard instruments.

“The plan was to use software to track the flight path of the drone in real-time, while the UAV was used to fly the perimeter of the simulated spill area,” Keresnasami explains.

However, it’s not just the physical structure and onboard capability of a drone that is important: time in the air is critical too. Keresnasami says: “The longer the UAV can stay in the air, the better suited it will be for an oil spill response job. Oil spills can be spread over a large surface area and UAVs used in this application need to have the capacity to be in the air for more than an hour at least.”

During flight the UAV collects data, equipping responders with everything they need to make the right decisions. It can take photos, provide and record live video streams – helpful for post incident analysis – take thermal images, and provide the GPS coordinates necessary to target a response.

“Real-time transmission of videos and GPS coordinates can be incredibly helpful to identify the exact location of a spill so that other vessels with spill containment equipment – such as booms and dispersants – can be directed to the incident location,” Keresnasami says.

During the exercise, six flights were undertaken with the aim of locating and then sizing the spill. In the event of a real spill, this data would have been used to determine the most appropriate response. However, Keresnasami says there is much more UAVs can do: “Drones can also be used to assess the efficacy of spill containment efforts to see how well booms are containing the spill, or how well the dispersants are working to break down the oil sheen.”

The future of UAVs in the oil and gas industry

The use of drones in the oil and gas industry is not new, they have been used to conduct inspections and surveys for some time. However, as technology advances, their application will continue to grow. Keresnasami says he expects to see increased automation, increased onboard processing capabilities, greater integration of artificial intelligence and new payloads (sensors). He also believes there will be less need for human intervention as they become “smarter machines”.

In the simulated scenario, and others like it, just two operators are needed to provide up to 10 hours of flight a day, making the proposition even more attractive as it reduces logistical requirements and therefore costs.

“There is a small window of time where oil slicks and spills can be effectively dispersed,” he concludes. “They can take to the sky quickly to identify the location of the spill, saving a great amount of time.”

The oil and gas exploration community is always looking to reduce risk, but in the event of a spill, having an eye in the sky quickly is one way of managing a response and reducing the impact on the surrounding environment. The success of this simulation might very well herald a new age in emergency response.