Drone competition advancing technology to assist first responders

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - This week, a Salina Airport hanger has become a testing ground for drones specialized in helping first responders.

Nine teams from across the country are participating in a competition to advance these unmanned aircraft’s technology.

“That’s a huge engineering challenge to make sure the aircraft flys the same outdoors as it does indoors because we want it to be predictable, we want it to be easy, especially if you’re deploying these in high-stress situations,” said Uniform Sierra Aerospace Co-founder and CEO Duncan Mulgrew.

The fourth iteration of this NIST - National Institute of Standards and Technology - competition has nine teams from universities and companies putting their drones to the test. It’s in partnership with K-State Salina Aerospace and Technology campus.

“We handle some of our external researching by using competitions or challenges to define and find those finite gaps in the technology to help first responders in their missions,” said Terese Manley with NIST Public Safety Communications Research Division.

The technology has a lot of potential for first responders.

“The cliche answer is the sky is the limit, but I’ll tell you it really is nice to have that extra set of eyes in times of large areas search and rescue,” said Topeka Fire Department Division Chief Alan Stahl.

Uniform Sierra Aerospace co-founder Mulgrew is among those with a drone for flying indoors and assisting first responders in places with limited access or visibility.

“When you’re outside, you have GPS, so you can use that to position the aircraft. As soon as you go inside, you’re going to lose that GPS signal, so you have to depend on other sensors on the aircraft to position the aircraft in space.” Mulgrew said, “While we do have a GPS on our system so you can take off from an armored vehicle and fly us to a building, as soon as you go into that building, you lose that GPS and instead transition to a LIDAR and optical-flow-based positioning sensors.”

That’s the challenge these teams have been given - building drones to assist with indoor disasters and search and rescue, which can be among the most dangerous and difficult for first responders, like after a tornado or other hazardous situations.

“Sending a drone into a confined area to find a lost individual or active shooter or something inside of a building, but they don’t necessarily want to have one of their personnel go in first,” said Manley.

Kristian Koons with ManTech Flight said, “I grew up around a lot of law enforcement. I had family that were firefighters, so it means a lot to me that I’m able to give back through my own way.”

The unmanned aircraft systems are evaluated for endurance, design and capabilities.

Koons said, “Can take a beating, so you can definitely hit walls. That’s fine. It’s got a thermal infrared sensor on him. LEDs for night and darkened areas. He is spring-loaded landing gear, which we have found to be a big hit.”

Animesh Shasdry with the University of Maryland’s AMAV team said they started building their drone about six months and are among those looking forward to testing out what they have created.

“This is the first time we’ve done a full-scale in front of like first responders and actually real-world situations,” said Shasdry.

One of the tests for these drones included going into and searching a mock collapsed building.

“If we’re searching a building that’s partially collapsed, that’s a big risk for us, and we don’t want to put personnel into a situation that could potentially get them injured if there’s no one alive inside,” said Stahl. “This would give us a chance to get eyes on, find saveable victims and then make a plan to go into an extremely risky scenario.”

Stahl said drones could help increase the speed and ability of rescue teams.

The competition offers $685,000 in prize money, with the top team receiving $100,000.

The winner will be announced in early June.

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