Search and rescue with a Skydio X10 drone flown remotely
Watch this live demo of Skydio X10 sUAS showing a visual and thermal search for a lost man with the operator flying the drone remotely from hundreds of miles away.
Learn more about Remote Ops.
- Okay. Um,
- so basically
- what we're gonna do is run a simulated search
- and rescue scenario, and we're
- leveraging a remote operations capability called Remote Flight Deck.
- And it's used today by US-based public safety and
- domestic users, um, for DFR and other applications.
- So it's really speaking to a innovation that's actually deployed as a
- capability today.
- Um, so I'm starting Remote Flight Deck. You see the screen here.
- You see this is our SE organization, the, the vehicles we have.
- I'm gonna click on an X10 here,
- um,
- which enables me to,
- to select a, a vehicle that's already up.
- And setting the scene a bit here, um, you gotta
- imagine this a bit with me, but we're gonna join a special operations
- unit on what
- would equate to a cultural engagement mission.
- Um, in this instance,
- theater ISR, so a large, uh, medium altitude
- asset, uh, that, you know, can see and provide situational
- awareness at a large scale, is lost visibility due to cloud layers,
- which is
- actually accurate today, and on a four-person team in a
- semi-rural area. Um, the team reported receiving small arms
- and RPG fire from
- multiple locations, and during this, one operator was separated from the team.
- From the mission plan, if unable to communicate, um,
- or locate the team after
- taking fire, operators will look to ID and move to a, a safe location.
- So I'm playing bu- uh, the role of base operations here.
- It's, it's a stretch, but that's what I'm doing today.
- And we are roughly two hundred and sixty-five miles away from
- where the drone actually is.
- So I know that's-- there's an organic asset, which is this,
- um,
- in the vicinity, and we're gonna provide some search
- and rescue on, on
- this. So I'm gonna go into the fly screen here.
- You'll see.
- Max key screen here.
- And,
- and yeah. And so because we're in national airspace,
- and this is-- we're gonna
- commandeer it, and then I have remote ID,
- uh, which is,
- you know, compliant with FAA. And we have a
- v-visual observer that's on my comms here.
- That's why I have, uh,
- the, the earbud here.
- Okay. I'm gonna do a couple settings here, doing the system check.
- Going to up some speed, so it's not slow.
- Bit rate, so it's a bit
- cleaner. And now we're ready to launch.
- So I'm gonna launch this vehicle,
- and I'm doing this live. It's not pre-recorded.
- I'll probably fumble it up a bit.
- So it'll be
- accurate. Pay no attention to the, the house.
- Um, [laughs] so we're gonna get some altitude.
- So the first objective in this is to locate a small bridge,
- which was one of the last lo-known locations of this,
- this group. Um,
- and we're gonna get to about a hundred fifty feet AGL, which is
- roughly-ish the height we're at today in this building.
- All right. So the-- one of the key advantages of the X10,
- and I'm controlling
- this with a mouse here.
- See a bridge. I actually don't have to fly over here
- 'cause I have pretty good
- optics.
- I'm zooming in pretty closely here. This is not even max.
- It w-- just you're seeing a little jitter here,
- but there's actually about
- twenty-five mile per hour winds right now, so this is a pretty stable image for
- that. Um, so we don't see a truck here.
- So the next, the next thing, um... So we're looking for a truck, I forgot to
- mention. A-and the local operator may have
- commandeered a truck and
- placed a small US flag in that truck.
- Um, and if we don't find a truck, we're gonna look for a person on foot.
- So we know the objective was to go down this road, so we're gonna,
- we're gonna
- fly a bit down this road.
- And the way I'm controlling this too, it's--
- this drone is actually flying on the
- local cellular network, so it's actually not physically connected
- to a ground
- station.
- Um,
- and we are able to control it over our remote flight deck.
- So we're
- flying down here. We don't see anything of note.
- The next objective, uh, location would be to look for a safe
- location for this
- operator, and this, this space over here looks like it could
- be.
- Never done this before. Just, you know, not rehearsed at all.
- All right. So again, we're, we're using organic asset to do a search
- and rescue,
- and, and for folks in the room, I'm sure you've done--
- folks have done some search
- and rescues, and this is maybe roughly looking like it, or,
- or you guys are much
- more organized than I am. But we're-- because this, this drone allows us to do a
- lot of things, um, organically, and then with, you know, a very,
- a very dialed, uh, sensor system, we can do things
- pretty quickly. So that looks like it might be a truck.
- We're gonna go zoom in a bit. I see a truck there, door open.
- Um, we're gonna go investigate a bit further.
- And with the thermal, um, that we were highlighting earlier, if this truck's
- been running, um, we should see a little bit of heat, uh,
- off--
- difference off this, uh, the truck hood there.
- If the car's been soaking in the sun for a while, it may not show as much, or if
- the car's been off for a while. We do see that
- looks like it's a little hotter at this point here in the front area, and that the
- door's open. So we're gonna get low.
- And something that's great about Skydio,
- um, I mentioned, you know, our obstacle avoidance earlier.
- We saw it in demonstration. I'm not really concerned about what's down
- here.
- I'm not gonna hit anything. Um, it's very hard, if not impossible,
- to crash a
- Skydio drone when you're-- if you're, excuse me, if you're trying.
- Um, so we can get really close to this
- and really look inside to see if there's any signs of,
- signs of distress or someone actually inside.
- Um,
- and we can again use our zoom if we need to.
- Pretty close. Nothing there. See if we can see a
- flag. That looks like a flag to me. So the intel was good.
- So okay. So the next step is we, we gotta find our operator.
- He's still missing.
- Um, so he's well-trained, um, and experienced in this sort of scenario.
- So he's gonna look for a, a woods area or somewhere where he's
- semi-obfuscated from any unfriendlies, and that we can find him from the air.
- So I'm gonna pop up again. Again, I'm not really concerned what's above me
- 'cause
- our obstacle avoidance will dodge anything.
- And this looks like a good woods here.
- So it's pretty hard to search woods like this, especially with,
- you know, the colors that troops typically wear
- and what we're looking here.
- But if I twist to thermal,
- hmm, that looks like a guy wandering or maybe lost.
- Maybe we can get a little closer. And he's not gonna be able to hear us,
- but one of
- his things is, because we're pretty high right now,
- we're about 200 feet AGL,
- uh, if we get low and he hears us and he sees a friendly, he's gonna wave.
- So I can go, now that I found him on thermal, I can go to
- the optical and do our fancy zoom again. Not even all the way.
- That looks like one of our operators, so I'm gonna get a bit closer.
- Go back.
- Again, this is all what we call teleoperation,
- so, uh, it's not a pre-planned
- mission, though those are possible as well.
- I'm gonna get a little lower and see if he starts waving at me.
- Oh, yep, there he is. There's-- we found Chase.
- Nice outfit, Chase. Awesome. So w- we completed our mission.
- And, uh, you know, in,
- in either case, we could, we could land in there, dob-
- dodge some obstacles, he
- can catch it, or we can just return home.
- Um, given the winds and things, I think it's probably smarter just to
- return home.
- It'd just be quicker. Um, but Chase now knows where to go.
- And this, you know, end scene, but this is his property,
- so he's not actually lost.
- [laughs] He's been a good sport. Thanks, Chase.
- Um, so yeah. So I'm gonna return now, and basically, it's gonna
- take-- go back to where it took off, which we did a big circle.
- So yeah, so this is, you know, a, a demonstration of what's capable with our
- remote
- operations, and I, I demonstrated over cellular network
- again, so we're using the
- local cell. Um, we also have our dock, dock systems, if you've seen that or heard
- of that, which basically houses a drone
- that can recharge, take off,
- land, and there's a direct connection between
- the dock and, and the drone.
- So it, it leverages our same remote flight deck
- capabilities and everything we just
- demonstrated here, same controls, and you can do pre-planned missions.
- So really is showing the future kind of already in use today.
- Um, this drone's in Ohio. We're flying it right now.
- Um,
- almost easier than what Taylor just did.
- So pretty cool technology that's being utilized across the US today.
Watch Time
8 Mins 15 Secs