Drone Feeds in Your Incident Management System?

Drones are increasingly utilized for disaster response to support situational awareness. While they are a great tool, you must also properly integrate them into your operations, including your common operating picture or situational awareness/intelligence platform(s). Integrating drone feeds can present both operational and technical challenges. 

To address this, a NJ-based startup, Currant Inc., has developed a module that makes this integration easy with existing platforms. As an advisor to Currant, I am impressed by what they have accomplished. This is just the beginning of what I see possible with drones and the information they produce.  

Here are the details from Currant's blog post:

Currant Inc. has announced the launch of CurrantDRONE, a feature of their online incident management system that will incorporate live data feeds from drones directly into CurrantGRID, a web-based platform used by emergency managers and first responders.

“We are so excited about this launch of our drone feed integration and its potential to change how quickly we can respond to disasters,” says Denise Spell, CEO of Currant.  “Drones can safely go where humans can’t, and our live video feed can help first responders know exactly what they’re up against,” Ms. Spell said from the OEM Conference on Drones being held in Cape May, NJ.  “OEM coordinators can achieve real-time situational awareness, determine  if there are people needing rescue, if power lines are down, or if hazardous materials are present, without traveling into harm’s way.”

Data from CurrantDRONE can feed directly into CurrantGRID, where it can be reviewed and workflowed from the safety of a mobile command center.  OEM coodinators can use this real-time data to efficiently evaluate a situation and determine a specific response.  Teams of responders can then be organized, prioritized, and assigned with the click of a mouse.  Drones can also be used to drop supplies, medicine, and information to those awaiting rescue.