InDro data gathering drones deployed in support of BC firefighters

Canadian next-generation terrestrial and aerial vehicle specialist InDro Robotics has joined the effort to battle wildfires that have been punishing the nation for weeks with data-gathering drone deployments to assist firefighters in British Columbia.

Toronto-based InDro staged the first of its drone flights on Monday in BC, where its craft have been called in by local officials to provide analytical data and evolving on-ground situational awareness support of firefighters. Those initial sorties were made around Kelowna, where the company’s UAVs are carrying out both thermal monitoring and damage assessment missions.

The latter, says InDro, involve drones using FLIR sensors to identify wildfire hot spots that are prioritized in firefighting strategies, as well as in monitoring underground burns that have ignited beneath Kelowna’s landfill.

Damage assessment activity, meanwhile, is being performed by pairing InDro drones and Spexigon data acquisition and processing software, which simplifies production of high-resolution ground imagery.

That combination is enabling faster and more complete collection and assembly of precise visuals of burned and vulnerable terrain – and even automating pre-planned flight activity to boot. 

Read: InDro earns FAA BVLOS waiver for US drone inspections – ‘a Canadian first’

An additional benefit of using Spexigon software in its support of firefighters in the Kelowna area, says InDro CEO Philip Reece, is the platform’s automatic creation of an increasingly enriched database. That accumulating reserve of information can easily and securely be accessed by firefighters to most effectively battle evolving blazes until they’re controlled.

“Obtaining high-resolution photogrammetry requires precise flying – including maintaining a consistent height above ground level,” says Reece of the InDro-Spexigon tandem. “The automated flights will ensure consistent photos – which will provide decision-makers with a clear picture of what’s been damaged, and to what extent.”

Read: New Montana law targets drone pilots disrupting firefighting efforts

Officials in Kelowna have reported significant problems of unauthorized drone flights around not only banned wildfire areas as the crisis has grown, but even repeated craft inside the city’s restricted airport space. 

Aware of the disabling consequences of such illicit aerial activities to continued operation of firefighters’ aircraft, InDro says is working closely with officials to ensure its UAVs pose no additional complications to the effort they seek to assist.

“Drone-gathered data – whether thermal or visual – helps those in charge make the best possible decisions in a rapidly changing situation,” says Reece. “We will fly missions as long as required, and offer any other assistance we can. We hope the situation for the tens of thousands of people impacted by this disaster returns to normal as soon as possible.”

Image: Karl Greif/Unsplash