I found this interesting. A man walked away from a rollover in a highly disoriented state. Weather was borderline and he wasn't adequately dressed. A ground search didn't find him, nor helicopter passes using night vision goggles. A police UAV was used to pinpoint his position from his body heat.

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/video/8363909/story.html

There is a lot of discussion concerning the negatives of UAVs, but there are a lot of positives. This is an example of what we will see more often in the future and it will revolutionize SAR. Think of UAVs as the robotic equivalent of St Bernards and their cask of brandy......

Where is the brandy on the UAV?

Instead of hellfire-missiles they could carry soft containers filled with brandy and drop those to the person in distress...

Just sayin´.

Of course, the hellfire missile would be great if they needed to start a fire......

Joking apart, are these vehicles equiped to drop anything to someone lost or injured ?
If human resuers cant reach the the person promptly, it would seem that in some cases life could be preserved by dropping supplies.
Water, first aid kit, a blanket, matches, a two way radio, or if dangerous wildlife is in the area a firearm, could all save a life.

Or are the vehicles not suitably equiped for dropping anything.
If they can drop bombs for miltary purposes then they can drop anything else of similar size and weight. Or they only equiped for firing missiles.

Nay, the joking must continue!



How does that song go? "Send lawyers, guns, and money; the crap has hit the fan"...

To get at least partially serious, UAV technology is just beginning to evolve. I don't have any trouble envisioning models that could indeed carry critical supplies (like water) into victims in distress. The hallmarks of UAV technology are versatility and adaptability.

SAR will soon be a whole new ball game....

There are some rotary wing UAVs that are designed to carry supplies. I have never seen a fixed wing UAV used for that though. Most of the ones used by law enforcement are small and have very limited range, I doubt they would be able to carry more than a small survival kit and bottled water.

In this case, it was a small rotary wing unit. The officer fairly bristled at some of the media's "drone" questions (as noted in the link). Considering he saved a life where other methods failed, he was quite justified. It's hardly new, as FLIR has been used for SAR on full-size police helicopters for years and years. But somebody looking for a sexy angle on a hot-button topic isn't exactly the considered voice of reason. Two cheers, as the man said, for democracy.