Integrated and autonomous emergency drones for decision support, operational picture and command & control
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | 4C Strategies AB |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 1 665 000 |
| Project duration | May 2018 - June 2019 |
| Status | Completed |
| Venture | Drones |
| Call | Drones of the future - Drones for citizens and community |
Important results from the project
The purpose of the project has been to produce a prototype solution in which the command and control of automatically navigating UAV:s can be controlled from within a digitial mission command support system (Exonaut). This with the goal to minimize the time it takes for fire fighters to get actionable intelligence from the air before and during missions, and also to ensure that the mission itself is not negatively affected by the actual ordering of the UAV mission. A functioning prototype has been developed and tested during the project, and is available for further use and development.
Expected long term effects
Results include a working interface prototype, that drastically lowers the time it takes to get quality imaging from a UAV and share this imaging between all levels of command during a mission. The effects on society as a whole are still dependant on new regulations allowing f.e. the flight of UAV:s beyond Line of Sight (LOS), as the possibility of utilization will be limited before this is in place. However, the prototype has been designed to quickly be able to adapt to new regulations and enter into live usage with limited additional effort.
Approach and implementation
In the initial phase, a thourough requirements analysis was undertaken to better inform stakeholders on where the information gathered by a UAV would provide the most value, given the extreme time conditions present in an ordinary mission. With this in mind, the project focused exclusively on a specific type of building fire, in which aerial photography would provide the most expected value. In cooperation with the fire fighters, flight patterns adapted to the type of incident were developed, and tested live during a trial day on Tullinge airport outside of Stockholm.