UAS response
How effective are drones? Michael Traylor reviews the evidence for the use of unmanned aerial systems to enhance the outcome of emergency response operations.
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The FDNY used UAS during a recent terrorist control exercise. Š SMG/Sundance Media Group
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nmanned aerial systems are proving to be a necessary response tool for public safety organisations. Their use can greatly enhance the capabilities of such organisations by providing airborne support in a cost-effective way, improving response times, organisation, and command and control as well as the safety of those on the ground. UAS can significantly reduce response times for critical incidents such as hazardous materials spills, search and rescue missions, structure and brush fires, and suspect apprehension searches. They fulfill new roles in crime scene documentation, mapping crime scenes, and critical incident scenes in a manner that was unheard of before, as well as bolstering traditional command and control-related intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance for incident commanders. The primary advantage many agencies find with using unmanned aerial systems is that the operating costs are significantly cheaper than their manned counterparts. An unmanned system can operate at a cost of around $25 per hour versus a manned aircraft at $650 an hour (Benefits and Risks of UAS, 2017). A UAS also does not bring with it any significant fees associated with hangar space or routine inspections. The cost of acquisition is also significantly cheaper. The size of an agency and its budget will have a direct impact on its ability to field an aviation programme. Smaller agencies with fewer than 100 employees will not have the revenue to fund a manned capability and must turn instead to an unmanned system. The missions these systems can carry out for public safety are wide-ranging. Current public safety missions include response and assessment of hazardous materials spills and incidents, search and rescue missions, crime scene documentation and mapping, explosive ordinance disposal,
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barricaded suspect surveillance, active shooter response, disaster response and recovery, training support, damage assessments, forensic photography, and crime scene mapping. With the addition of specialised sensors, these aircraft can be excellent airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platforms for incident commanders. The use of UAS to improve situational awareness on large fires, whether structural or wildland, can assist commanders in achieving the best possible deployment of assets in their response by determining hot spots and flare-up locations on fire scenes. Significant research has been carried out on the use of UAS in emergency situations. Because of their unique capabilities, UAS can enter an area significantly faster than ground personnel. This is particularly the case for incidents such as radiological responses, where ground personnel would have to put on their personal protective equipment prior to responding to conduct the initial assessment of the scene (Duncan, 2014). An experiment was conducted that showed a small UAS could conduct the initial assessment of a radiological event and start providing useful data within 16 minutes. The data was sent to incident command within 50 minutes, ten minutes before the ground team were able to completely don their personal protective equipment (Duncan, 2014). The aircraft was significantly faster in providing the initial assessment of the scene and assisting in locating the source of the radiation than the ground crew. It didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t eliminaute the need for ground crews to enter the hot zone, but thanks to the initial assessment carried out by the UAS, exposure times can be greatly reduced (Duncan, 2014). Unmanned aerial systems are a growing segment of rescue robotics that can operate in three operational environments, which is a critical consideration when selecting the correct UAS. These three deployment environments are wide-area,
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