Discussions

Hi all,

I have just started work on a new site I'm putting together here in Switzerland called notfalldrohnen.ch (English: Emergency Drones), which may be of interest to Swiss UAV operators here.

Basically, the use of UAV's in search and rescue is well proven, and would be in a unique position to assist Swiss emergency services - particularly for post-avalanche search and rescue, or for landslide survey where time and dangerous access is a critical factor. UAV's could add real value here.

I was planning on an online database where volunteers with suitably equipped quads/planes could register their facilities on the database and also "register" with the local emergency services.

The emergency service can use the database to do their own lookups and find *approved/accredited* UAV that way. eg: An avalanche at the matterhorn - mountain rescue types in "matterhorn" and "avalanche", and they get a list of all the UAV volunteer operators local to that area, and what capabilities they can provide, and what their response times are.

This database would have fields along the lines of:

GENERAL

1. Name, address, contact number of operator etc

2. Geographic locations that operator can cover

3. Response times and availability hours

4. Language preference

UAV SPECIFIC:

1. Type (MR, heli or aeroplane)

2. Performance details (weight, endurance, range, payload, setup time)

3. Rescue specific sensors (video systems, FLIR, GPS location tagging, telemetry, package drop etc)

4. Transportability (packages, weight etc)

5. Environmental limitations (max wind speeds, min& max temperatures, maximum altitude, runway requirements, not waterproof etc)

6. Pictures/video

AUDIT:

1. Callout agency (Fire, ambulance, police, mountain rescue)

2. Type of call (landslide, avalanche etc)

3. Date/time/location

4. Vehicle and performance statistics (vehicle used, batteries used, flight times etc)

5. Successful? (yes, no, post-incident report/notes)

That's the easy bit...

The problems are:

- Each vehicle must be prove readiness to local services before registration is *approved*. Readiness must include: range, endurance, sensor operation. If you claim 2km range or 20 minutes endurance...you must prove it to gain accreditation. Emergency services are reliant on you doing what you say you can do. You cannot upsell your capabilities. But how to implement this?

- Each operator *must* register any changes in availability for either themselves (eg holidays), or their vehicles (crashes/mechanical failures!)

- Will the emergency services use it, and is formal approval required? Do I engage locally, or do I need to go to central government departments?

- Are there insurance implications?

- What's the volunteer process in Switzerland?

Anyone know a good way of being able to build such a database, preferably with a wordpress front end?