Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
DONEGAL WILL BE at the centre of a pilot scheme which will help shape the rules regarding drone usage among emergency response teams.
Both the European Emergency Number Association (EENA), an NGO dedicated to improving emergency services, and drone company DJI announced a partnership which would see it training first responders to use drones in emergency situations.
One of the two groups taking part in this trial is the Donegal Mountain Rescue Team, a organisation made up of volunteers across the county.
Team member, Leo Murray, said the organisation had been testing drones for the “past nine months” conducting tests, but the new partnership allows further testing over the summer.
“The announcement [from EENA and DJI] was on the back of the relationships we’ve built up,” he said. “DJI and EENA have come on board toe be part of a pilot test for the summer because they’re putting together compliance and regulations of drone applications in emergency services and they want to see the best way of doing it”.
We’ve been at it for about nine months testing it and we’ve had positive results but there are further tests needed over the summer.
Since the volunteer organisation has experience in drone usage, partly thanks to a Donegal startup called Drone App Labs developing some of the software needed for live feeds and tracking, the pilot scheme will look at developing networking and crowd-sourcing capabilities.
That’s something the rescue team already does as it regularly works with the Irish coastguards’ ground-based teams and boat units since some of the mountainous areas are based along the coastline. Roughly 40% of its calls are coastline based according to Murray so it makes sense to expand upon this.
“We would be looking at doing trials with them as we know they’re interested as well,” says Murray. “So you’re looking at cliff areas, bays and areas that are inaccessible or hard to get to so that’s where we see the application”.
The main objective of a drone is to enhance the personal view and get a visual overview in advance of the team actually reaching it… we can get a drone to send back live imagery. We would be able to asses that imagery and inform the different search parties to go to different areas.
A live view of remote or hard to reach areas is one of the things drones can be used for, but the team is experimenting with other uses.
One would be dropping payloads to someone remotely to help them out while another area they’re looking at is thermal imagery, giving it the ability to perform night searches using heat signals to find people.
Overall, such a scheme allows the organisation to further step up their tests and see where their strengths lie. Yet they’re not seen as a replacement for anything, just as a way to compliment existing protocol.
“It’s really just an extra tool in the toolbox,” says Murray. We are thankful [for the pilot scheme] because we are voluntary and we don’t have money to buy this equipment… it’s an opportunity for us to use and get the benefits of them”.
I do see their use coming into emergency services just because we can get live imagery for remote locations very quickly… [and] speed up search and rescue operations.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Sounds like a pretty awesome idea.
Use of drones is a slippery slope in my opinion
Paddy Brewster, “slippery slope” and mountains. Very witty indeed. This is a great idea.
These might have some limited use but a large proportion of mountain rescues take place in conditions of bad visibility. If people are lost/injured in foggy/drizzly/nighttime conditions, the drones won’t be much use unless they have some radar or heat seeking technology on board. The days that look great on the tourist videos tend not to have so many cases of hypothermia.
Heat-seeking technology is inhibited by ‘rain/drizzle/fog’ and, in ideal conditions, is only as good as the person deciphering/viewing it.
That’s why the government needs to buy a couple of these:https://www.airforce.gov.au/Technology/Aircraft/MQ-4C-Triton-Unmanned-Aircraft-System/?RAAF-BYjCaU6eHptQ3E2EiHw9jKOLJvauES8Y
Should be sponsored by the Tourism Board who could then use the videos to entice Hollywood companies to shoot sci-fi movies all over Ireland.
The department of defence should have drones capable of doing this when they are not engaged in maritime patrol duties, check my link above. These drones can keep track of hundreds of targets simultaneously, so they could be repurposed for search and rescue and still keep track all of their other targets…
If they sent up loads and loads and loads of drones with ropes, they could lift people up in the air and fly them like the snowman, and the tune it… We’re walking in the air. We have no underwear…. At all.
I love drones that are used in a peaceful manor. Like every scientific feat so much good can be done but unfortunately….
I know this is off piste but since 9 am the journal has posted just 18 stories…are they are a training day…lot happening in the world at mo.
Sounds like a fairly decent use of drone technology in this case. Could be a useful aid for hill walkers instead of just looking at your neighbours badly made decking?
Drones need to be immensely powerful to operate in even moderately high winds, severe gusts, driving rain and far away from base stations. There can be difficulties in difficult topographies with sufficient control reception. I would imagine that they will supplement existing search methods but not replace them.
It beats slaughter droning innocent people
Loads of rescue units using them now nothing new in it
have your say