This Technology is Upgrading First Responders Capabilities

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Law enforcement and first responders have been using drones for more and more missions. 

Incident commanders receive critical visual information and situational awareness through the use of drones. Drones are helping law enforcement teams pinpoint the locations of active aggressors. Firefighters can assess the size and growth of a blaze and its risk of contacting hazardous chemicals or spreading to a residential area thanks to drones.

Flymotion, specializing in unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), mobile drone command centers, communications technology, has been providing drone systems to various first responder agencies in the US. 

In 2018, the New York Police Department (NYPD) selected the company to supply their new fleet of 14 drones, drone support equipment and training. 

The drones can be equipped with infrared cameras for night-time surveillance and multigas detectors that can identify and monitor hazardous chemicals from a safe distance. Like HD video, this data can be streamed from the drone to first responders in the immediate area via mobile cellular networks to act upon the data in real-time.

According to suasnews.com, the company has developed a series of mobile and vehicular solutions that allow multiple drone operators to deploy to a specific location, launch and control their drones from a single sheltered area, and stream their videos and sensor data back to an incident commander using signal-boosting mobile antenna arrays.

A mobile drone command center, Maverick, was built into a Chevrolet Tahoe that can be deployed anywhere on a moment’s notice. It comes with the equipment to fly, monitor and transmit video streams from multiple drones via mobile cellular and satellite. 

A microwave radome ingests multiple helicopter live video downlinks into the onboard video matrix system granting the user powerful input monitoring. Cellular bonding technology carries live HD video transmissions to any place in the world, according to the company website.

For smaller departments, the Mission Case LTE creates a mobile hotspot that can connect up to 128 simultaneous devices (including AT&T FirstNet devices) to a single enhanced wireless network connection. 

Samsung supplies the ruggedized smartphones and tablets to serve as mobile network connectors and drone control touchscreens. Flymotion is working on integrating Samsung DeX into their portfolio to enable users to set up an in-vehicle computing system to provide a full desktop experience.