https://urgentcomm.com/wp-content/themes/ucm_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • IWCE 2022 Winter Showcase
    • IWCE 2023 Pre-event Guide
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • Commentary
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • All Things IWCE
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • IWCE
    • Conference
    • Special Events
    • Exhibitor Listings
    • Premier Partners
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Register for IWCE
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookie Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • TU-Auto
  • In the field
    • Back
    • In the field
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Internet of Things
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Call Center/Command
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Network Tech
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Operations
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Regulations
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • Organizations
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
Urgent Communications
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Omdia Crit Comms Circle Podcast
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • IWCE 2023 Pre-event Guide
    • IWCE 2022 Winter Showcase
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • All Things IWCE
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • UC eZines
    • Sponsored content
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • Conference
    • Why Attend
    • Exhibitor Listing
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Join the Event Mailing List
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • TU-Auto
  • newsletter
  • In the field
    • Back
    • Internet of Things
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Cybersecurity
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
acc.com

Urgent Matters


Commentary

Unmanned aerial vehicles demonstrate their versatility

Unmanned aerial vehicles demonstrate their versatility

The future for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) appears bright, because use case for them has expanded well beyond the military and public safety.
  • Written by
  • 16th July 2013

Last week, I spent three days exploring The Henry Ford Museum, near Detroit. Paradoxically, it is one of America’s finest but also least-known museums. Among the artifacts on display was a full-scale replica of the flying machine built by Wilbur and Orville Wright, which gave birth to aviation at Kitty Hawk, N.C., in 1903, as well as the bicycle shop where the contraption was built—the actual shop, not a replica. Henry Ford, quite the innovator himself, had the shop relocated from Dayton, Ohio.

Seeing the flyer made me think about how far aviation has come in a relatively short amount of time—the evolution has been nothing less than amazing. As I mulled this, I started to think about unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Whenever this occurs, the first image that comes to mind is that of a UAV being used for some military, law enforcement or security purpose. Indeed, UAVs played an important role in the capture of Osama Bin Laden and are being used extensively to patrol our nation’s borders.

But other important uses have started to emerge. For example, the University of Alaska-Fairbanks conducted a field study late last year that utilized the Scout UAV—manufactured by Waterloo, Ont.-based Aeryon Labs and distributed in the U.S. by Datron World Communications—to learn more about the behavior of wildfires, which have a tendency to change direction rather abruptly, making them particularly dangerous and extremely difficult to contain.

Just two weeks ago, an Arizona wildfire provided a stark reminder of just how dangerous and capricious these incidents can be. Nineteen elite firefighters were killed when the wildfire they were battling overran them; reportedly, that wildfire’s erratic nature, driven by a change in wind direction and gusts up to 50 mph, was the root cause.

The Scout was used earlier this year by researchers at New Mexico State University in a trial that sought to discover how UAVs could be utilized by utilities to assess storm damage in order to restore electrical service more quickly after an outage. But perhaps the most unusual uses of the Scout thus far involved the counting of sea lions and helping an oil freighter reach an iced-in port.

The Scout is designed to stand up to harsh conditions, which was a good thing, because the sea-lion-counting and ice-breaking episodes occurred in the state of Alaska during the winter of 2012. In the former, the UAVs were launched from a former crab boat—reconfigured to serve as a research vessel—that was anchored in the Bering Sea, the same treacherous waters featured in the Discovery Channel program, “The Deadliest Catch.”

 The need to accurately count the creatures was borne of a desire to understand how climate change affects sea-lion populations. The Scout’s unobtrusive form factor, quiet operation and ability to hover came in handy, according to Dave Kroetsch, president of Aeryon Labs.

“The seals were on the Aleutian Islands, which are rocky,” Kroetsch said. “But even if you were able to approach them, all they would do is scramble off the island and into the water.”

A few weeks prior to this, officials in the city of Nome, Alaska, made a frightening discovery: the city’s port was freezing over much earlier than usual, and the freighter that was carrying the supply of heating oil that would get Nome’s 3,500 residents through the harsh winter—the average daytime high temperature in January is 13○F, while the average low is -2○F—was stuck in the Bering Sea.

The intuitive response to such an event would be to ask the U.S. Coast Guard to send out an ice breaker. Unfortunately, the ice already was too thick in many places. What they needed was a way to navigate the ice breaker along a path where the ice still was thin enough for the breaker to clear a path that would get the freighter close enough to the city, so a pipeline could be extended to it. But there was no way to make that determination by simple visual observation. Instead, they dispatched the Scout to gather the data they needed.

“They took a ton of photographs all around the port, and what they did then was put those photographs through 3D-rendering software that enabled them to measure the thickness of the ice,” said Chris Barter, Datron’s Scout product manager.

According to Kroetsch, the photos reveal pressure ridges, which provide important clues as to ice thickness.

“From the size of the ridges that they are able to measure at the surface, they can infer the depth of the ice in different conditions,” he said. “They know the terrain beneath the surface, because they’ve done accurate sonar modeling.”

I recently saw a press release regarding a research report from Reportlinker.com that predicts the global UAV market will exceed $8 billion by 2018. That’s not surprising, given their versatility and situational-awareness value, not to mention the fact that they can be sent into situations that would be too dangerous to send humans. Please forgive the pun, but it really does seem that the sky’s the limit.

Tags: Incident Command Military Utility Commentary Critical Infrastructure Federal Government/Military Public Safety Urgent Matters Commentary

Most Recent


  • Indoor 5G and how to solve it
    We all know the problem: mobile phone service is working fine … until you move indoors. Then, sometimes it works (you don’t notice), sometimes it sort of works (meh) and sometimes it clings on by one tiny bar or drops out entirely (argh). Diagnosing the problem is relatively simple. The loss of mobile service indoors […]
  • Honeywell releases cybersecurity, smart-building tools
    Honeywell has released a series of new tools aimed at improving operational efficiency and sustainability, including an operational technology (OT) cybersecurity tool and a smart building management system. The new cybersecurity tool, Cyber Insights, collects information from multiple OT data sources to identify vulnerabilities and threats.  “Organizations should leverage technology to address worker shortages, while […]
  • Small-cell focus still largely on densification, but private-network opportunity growing
    Some big ambitions for small cells were on display during the annual Small Cell World Summit in London this week. But it’s worth remembering that on the ground, their deployment is still at a relatively early stage. Dean Bubley of Disruptive Analysis, who chaired a panel addressing the issues of value creation and monetization, summarized […]
  • How to leverage digital tools to drive innovation in government
    The rapid evolution of digital technologies transformed the way governments function, making them more efficient, transparent and citizen-friendly. Rather than relying on crystal trophies, governments can leverage digital tools to drive innovation and streamline processes, benefiting the population they serve. Open data and crowdsourcing Open data refers to making government data available to the public, […]

Related Content

Commentary


Updated: How ‘sidelink’ peer-to-peer communications can enhance public-safety operations

  • 1
27th February 2023

NG911 needed to secure our communities and nation

24th February 2023

How 5G is making cities safer, smarter, and more efficient

26th January 2023
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


UrgentComm

Indoor 5G and how to solve it dlvr.it/SpxKkN

31st May 2023
UrgentComm

Honeywell releases cybersecurity, smart-building tools dlvr.it/SpwxqH

31st May 2023
UrgentComm

Small-cell focus still largely on densification, but private-network opportunity growing dlvr.it/SpwxBs

31st May 2023
UrgentComm

How to leverage digital tools to drive innovation in government dlvr.it/Spwfdg

31st May 2023
UrgentComm

NTIA head Davidson calls FirstNet a ‘success story,’ supports reauthorization before 2027 sunset dlvr.it/SpsWW9

30th May 2023
UrgentComm

How AT&T won DFW Airport’s $10 million private 5G business dlvr.it/Spj4Pt

27th May 2023
UrgentComm

Russia’s war in Ukraine shows cyberattacks can be war crimes dlvr.it/Spj3c2

27th May 2023
UrgentComm

FCC grants 700 MHz Band 14 license renewal to FirstNet Authority dlvr.it/Spj2Ny

27th May 2023

Newsletter

Sign up for UrgentComm’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about Communications and Technology.

Expert Commentary

Learn from experts about the latest technology in automation, machine-learning, big data and cybersecurity.

Business Media

Find the latest videos and media from the market leaders.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital and print audiences? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • American City & County
  • IWCE
  • Light Reading
  • IOT World Today
  • Mission Critical Technologies
  • TU-Auto

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Careers

FOLLOW Urgent Comms ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.