Assistance During Natural Disasters and Protection of the Population

Be it a natural or man-made disaster, providing relief and safety needs to be quick and efficient. Drones have played a significant role in assisting with pre- and post disaster area mapping, search and rescue missions, hazardous chemical spills, assessing structural damage, extinguishing wildfires or delivering emergency infrastructures and supplies.

Even insurance companies have used UAVs to make the insurance inspection and claims process quicker, without the need to be physically present in a dangerous environment. Drones can identify a critically damaged infrastructure, e.g. broken gas lines, or measure radiation exposure to protect both citizens and relief workers. 

Fly4Future has co-developed an autonomous miniature multirotor helicopter drone capable of detecting and searching for stationary and moving ionizing radiation sources (e.g., Cs-137, Co-60, Co-57, Eu-152). Radiation detection is facilitated by the unique miniature Compton camera sensor MiniPIX Timepix3 developed by Advacam. The onboard software results from research by our partner, the MRS group at CTU in Prague. The drone system has been tested under the support of the Czech Metrology Institute (CMI) within numerous civil defense exercises with the National Institute for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Protection (SUJCHBO) and the National Radiation Institute (NRI) in Řež.