First Responder Support for Search and Rescue

Partner: Jaguar Land Rover

Location: Portland, Oregon and Birmingham UK

“Next to creating a life, the finest thing a man can do is save one.” – Abraham Lincoln

Since 2016, SICDRONE has partnered with Jaguar Land Rover. In 2017, for Project Hero in Portland, Oregon we explored the pairing of UAS with ground-based search and rescue vehicles. SICDRONE engineers developed a flight control system interface with Jaguar engineers and built two UAS to demonstrate a link between a Range Rover and the SIC4 test quadcopter. SICDRONE traveled to Birmingham, England in 2017 to demonstrate the prototype UAS capability and to work more closely with the Jaguar Special Vehicle Operations [SVO] engineers to further define and finalize the system.

The Problem

First responders run into dangerous problems every day, and do not have the support or communication they need. Drones are not widely used to help first responders due to limited real-time data and payload capabilities. There are reduced and potentially degraded communications between hard-to-reach areas, such as a forest fire fighters to the first responder command vehicles.
The video show the software integration with a Range Rover to launch and recover a drone from the vehicle interface. SICDRONE and Jaguar Land Rover completed this in 2017.

The Solution

Project Hero consisted of an advanced communication vehicle (pictured above), created to support Jaguar Land Rover’s partnership with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the world’s largest humanitarian network.  SICDRONE and Jaguar SVO collaborated with the Austrian Red Cross to develop a unique SUAS and Land Rover that was to be trialed by their emergency response teams. The system was designed to help the Red Cross save lives by speeding up response times to disasters.

SICDRONE and the JLR interface team also co-developed a launch and recover touchscreen within a Range Rover’s software on an SUV testbed in Portland. Ultimately the interface was functional and able to land or launch the SUAS while stationary with a driving launch and recovery capable at low speeds. In 2017, SICDRONE became the first US-based UAS manufacturing company to achieve this type of integrated design, both launching from the top of a vehicle while also pairing land/land communication with the vehicle.