California startup Realtime Robotics is introducing a portable, relatively heavy-lift drone called Hera that the company says beats rivals as a situational awareness asset for first responders, as well as a munitions delivery device for security and defense forces. As such it also sounds like something likely to find numerous takers in Ukraine just now.
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Korean Air is providing fire fighting and rescue services at a popular vacation destination two of its hybrid drones. The craft’s mix of battery and internal combustion power will increase the length of missions flown, and enhance the craft’s resistance to rough weather conditions.
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When Norway was struck in the wee hours of December 30, 2020, by the biggest landslide disaster in its history, responders scrambled to launch what wound up becoming a record-setting rescue operation. As they did, powerful surveillance applications of DJI Matrice 300 RTK drones deployed above the area allowed those workers to more effectively locate and save survivors – and at far reduced risk of becoming victims themselves in the process.
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A woman lost in China’s Tianyuan District was found within 20 minutes after a DJI Matrice 300 drone was deployed to help out in the search and rescue mission. The woman, who has intellectual and mental disabilities, was picking tea with her sister when she wandered off and became lost.
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Last week, a couple stranded on the side of a canyon was saved with the help of a drone equipped with a zoom camera. Utah’s Weber County Sheriff’s Office deployed the drone just minutes after arriving on the scene, cutting down the search time.
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DEME Offshore and Sabca have worked together to test out search and rescue drones at the Rentel offshore wind farm in the North Sea. The trials come as the drones are readied for autonomous surveillance, rescue, and detection missions in the near future.
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A team of researchers in Europe have come up with an ingenious way to locate victims using a drone, a phone, and artificial intelligence. The team has repurposed a drone to create an aerial cell tower to ping phones in the area and find the missing person.
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The search for a missing woman on Table Mountain, South Africa, has come to an end earlier this week after the rescue team used a drone to locate her. The police rescue team shared that they found the body of an unidentified woman at the beginning of the week.
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A drone has helped officials rescue a hiker stuck on South Africa’s Table Mountain earlier this week after not being able to proceed back down the mountain. The rescue team was unable to reach the man and called in a drone to help the search.
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A thermally equipped drone has proved its worth in a recent search for a missing juvenile in Rutherford County, Tennessee.
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A missing kayaker’s friends have joined together to raise money to get a thermal drone in the air to aid in the search and rescue mission. The kayaker never returned home at lunchtime after going out off Moa Point, New Zealand.
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A woman from Rutherford County, Tennessee, has been found by an emergency response team using a drone to aid in the search. The drone was used to locate the woman from above, who made her way into the woods sometime earlier.
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While it’s normal to hear about drones being used to aid in search and rescue missions worldwide, this story is a little different but still required a drone for a happy and safe ending.
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In Thrissur, India, a teenager is being hailed a hero after he helped save four drowning fishermen with his drone’s help. The 19-year-old managed to hop on board a rescue boat and sent his drone up to find the fishermen clinging for life.
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A man who slipped off a cliff in Huishui County, China, was found by a local fisherman and a drone. The fisherman heard a faint cry for help but couldn’t see anyone, resulting in the police being called and sending a drone up.
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The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is using DJI drones equipped with infrared cameras to detect surviving koala populations in affected areas. The drones can automatically detect the heat signal from koalas, thanks to an algorithm built by QUT researchers.
A $26,000 DJI Matrice 210 was lost to the ocean during a training exercise when the DJI drone ran out of battery power nearly a mile offshore in high winds.
Drones are being used on Kangaroo Island, Australia by the Humane Society International (HSI) to help with the search and rescue efforts taking place for the wildlife injured in the recent bushfires that swept the country. The drones are equipped with infrared cameras, zoom lenses, and spotlights for finding the animals, no matter what the condition.
A new project announced on Wednesday by the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) will explore how current laws and regulations can be developed to allow search and rescue drones to be used to in coastline rescues. The drones will reach incidents first and relay critical information back to the MCA headquarters.
Earlier this week, a Tasmanian gold mine collapsed during the early hours of the morning with workers still inside. A drone was sent in to help with the search and rescue mission. In addition to the drone, a robotic camera was also used.
However, one worker is still yet to be found by police, fire, and rescue, along with a mine rescue team.
A drone helped a hurt hiker rappel 400 feet during a daring rescue at Snow Canyon State Park in Utah on Sunday. It was the first time an unmanned aircraft was used this way by the Washington County Search and Rescue team.
Update: we just got confirmation from the Washington County Sheriff Search and Rescue that the drone in question was a DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Dual with an aftermarket drop system. Impressive!
New DJI Matrice 300 (or M300) specifications and information has been leaked exclusively to DroneDJ before the launch of this new enterprise drone late February. The M300 will be accompanied by a brand new hybrid thermal camera called the DJI Zenmuse H20.
Today we have the pleasure of introducing you to Maritime Filming UK and one of their employees, Alex Anderson, who also happens to be one of Britain’s youngest commercial drone pilots at 18 years old. As the name suggests, Maritime Filming UK focuses on aerial photography and videography of boats, ships, and marine life in general, and they are the second entry in our brand-new DroneDJ Spotlight Series.
Remember the modified DJI Mavic 2 Zoom with the FLIR Boson thermal camera, that we covered earlier this year? Well, that was a prototype said Sheldon Holy from UK-based Drone Doctor and now also Revolve Drones. Now they’re back with a new and production ready version, the Revolve Thermal MK.III. The Boson 320 sensor has double the resolution of the sensor in the Mavic 2 Dual (320×240 resolution vs. 160×120), and a much narrower field of view (34° vs 57°). This allows the MK.III to detect a given heat signature at up to five times the distance that the Mavic 2 Dual is capable of, according to Revolve Drones. Keep reading for all the details but this may very well be the best drone for first responders right now, although it seems that new competition may be around the corner with the new Evo Autel 2 and Skydio 2 drones.
