28th May 2015
UAV Rescue Squad: Interview with Keven Gambold of Unmanned Experts
Drones, or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) can be very polarizing little toys. For some people, they’re just more fuel to feed the ‘robots are going to take over’ fear, for others they’re simply a hobby, and for a few more, they’re life-savers.
Unmanned Experts, a Colorado-based drone company with expert flyers has sent a drone crew of two to Nepal to help with the relief efforts in the aftermath of a disastrous earthquake. The company, supporting humanitarian relief organization Global Medic, will be using a sick drone called the Sky Ranger that can fly alone for an hour and withstand winds of 25mph.
For more insight on this we’ve spoken to CEO of Unmanned Experts, Keven Gambold.
Innovator’s Peak: What led Unmanned Experts to lead the charge on UAV aid relief in Nepal?
Keven Gambold: We’ve been closely associated with Global Medic, a group of very professional, very coordinated guys. And when the first earthquake hit, Global Medic deployed its team, as they normally do, and we got right to work to see what we could contribute.
IP: Is there a plan of action when you guys hit the ground?
KG: We have no plan, but the belief at the moment is that no plan survives contact with the enemy. [Our team] has taken a number of payloads out there that provide them options for mapping, doing search-and-rescue, or doing some inspection work in a number of frequencies. They also have a software packaging that will allow them to process the images we collect. And if they need any additional aid, we have a team back here that’s ready to do any image processing that needs to be done. I’m absolutely certain that these guys are going to hit the ground running and find that it is nothing like we expected. We’re very please that we’ve committed to these guys.
IP: Tell us a little about the UAV mapping that’s going to be taking place.
KG: It’s disaster-area mapping, which is a specific form of flying, it involves more planning and image processing than actual flying. But the aircraft can fly itself over the [planned] routes and, basically, show you the areas that are unstable, or if there’s a threat of destruction to a village, maybe even detect areas that have been destroyed or they’re extremely difficult to get to.
IP: What kind of collaboration have you seen between your team and the rescue relief team?
KG: Well, [the drone] is a new tool, and integrating that into people’s workflow is a challenge. Especially when you can’t practice with it. You’re not in a position, in most countries, to actually rehearse these things or to, at least, become familiar with them. In the future we’ll be able to provide training and allow [Global Medic] to familiarize themselves with the kit. Hopefully, we’ll already have a team in place that we can deploy with the Global Medic team, or others, to fly to another world. It’s been a learning curve for all of us, and I think will continue to be. These guys are incredibly motivated, and we’re all very excited to see what they can provide.
IP: Tell me about the “Sky Ranger” UAV and what it can do.
KG: Obviously, we’re going to different altitudes, and the aircraft we’ve chosen was the Sky Ranger. It’s very robust, reliable, and quick to turn around: you load it, pop the batteries out, swap the cards out, and swap the payloads out in seconds. So, this gives up tremendous flexibility in a number of plug-and-play payloads. We are one of the first in the US to get these high-definition payloads. I think there will be a lot of lessons learned when we come back from this.
IP: Outside of disaster relief, what other innovative uses can be applied to UAVs?
KG: One major thing we’re working on is documenting traffic accident scenes. After there’s a car accident, the forensic team measures all the factors of the scene, such as distance, etc. It takes them roughly an hour. And we found with the UAVs, we were able to do the thing in roughly half an hour and we were, at least, as accurate.
We’re also working on a bridge inspection project up in Minnesota for the department of transport. And it’s just a pilot program to see whether these remote bridges, that require annual inspections, can be made safer. It would be far safer using a drone than to be hanging off a ledge.
Another thing we’re really running hard at, as far as inspections go, is tower transmission cables. Currently, the guys climb the cables, while they are live, and do the physical inspections from there. And we’ve got a number of pilot programs where utility companies are looking to use these drones to map and inspect much quicker and much safer than they currently do.
IP: Thank you very much, Keven, for taking time out to speak with us.
KG: It’s my pleasure.
See? Drones aren’t just used for bombing third world countries, spying on your neighbor, or simply buzzing around the neighborhood terrifying your local technophobe or automatonophobe (fear of robots).
They can be used to map areas of disaster to better accurately determine the damage and what needs to be done. They can take the place of dangerous jobs without threatening job security. They can provide valuable and accurate data for car accident scenes or perhaps even other crime scenes. The possibilities and capabilities of drones, or UAVs, seem to be limitless, and we’re just now exploring what they can do.
By Glenn Krieger
