Episode 51: Don’t Waste Your Drones Data

Smart Firefighting

Drones have become more accessible and affordable, which has led to first responders gaining a drone program. More than ever disaster response teams are using these drones to map the disaster area. Scholar Farms is a drone training company that trains industry professionals to use data collected from UAVs.

Dr. Gregory Crutsinger worked in the ecology field when he became inspired by drones. He worked for leading drone hardware and software companies before founding Scholar Farms. Shortly after starting Scholar Farms Califonia was ravaged by a series of wildfires. Greg volunteered as a drone data analyst to show how useful mapping the aftermath is to start rebuilding.

When people think about drones in disaster response, they think of a drone with a live feed camera. Scholar Farms wants to show first responders the other ways drones can aide the team. Drones can be used to take pictures and map an area. The pictures can then be stitched together to create a map of the area. These maps can be geo-mapped so that the pictures match up to where they were taken. These maps can be incredibly useful when an area has been damaged so badly that they are hard to recognize.

Drones can be a great tool, but without the right analyst, much of their data won’t be properly implemented. If your department is interested in a drone program visit Darley.com/robotics If you want to learn more about Scholar Farms visit here.