Apps for Search & Rescue

[Nighthawk98TJ]

Hi All,

I figured I would start a new thread for this. I am a member of a Sheriff's Office Search & Rescue Unit and we are starting up our UAS program. We currently have a mix of P3S/P4/Mavic aircraft. I have used DJI GO and Litchi primarily in the past, but I'm curious what other apps others are finding useful for Search & Rescue operations. I have looked at DroneDeploy, but it does not work with the P3S, which is what I primarily fly personally. I wish that Litchi had an easy way to setup a grid search without having to draw it out manually and set the altitudes, spacing, etc. Any others that we are missing that you may be using or recommend?

On a related note, for those that are using other apps for flying, such as Litchi, are you using those apps all the time when you fly (for manual flight, etc.), or are you using DJI GO unless there's a need for a specific feature found in another app?

Thanks for the input.

 

[MarkG_007]

Hi All,

I figured I would start a new thread for this. I am a member of a Sheriff's Office Search & Rescue Unit and we are starting up our UAS program. We currently have a mix of P3S/P4/Mavic aircraft. I have used DJI GO and Litchi primarily in the past, but I'm curious what other apps others are finding useful for Search & Rescue operations.
Thanks for the input.

Although not for search and rescue Pix4dcapture has numerous options allowing you to use grid patterns and control the overlap, speed, altitude etc. it’s for taking a series of photographs for orthomosiac stitching. The app is free to download. Good luck.

 

[BigAl07]

We do and teach sUAS SAR Operations and we use a variety of Apps depending on what the need is.

First off I want to say I agree 100% on your comment:

I wish that Litchi had an easy way to setup a grid search without having to draw it out manually and set the altitudes, spacing, etc.

It would be GREAT if they offered a "Menu" with possible grids and you pick the one to use and then modify it for the location.

One thing you can do is take the time to create your search grid in the office (depending on what search pattern you're looking to use) in Litchi and then COPY that pattern to a new area. Once copied you can modify the parameters (speed, altitude etc) on the new search grid.

Type of patterns you can create:

• Ceeping Line (most common)
• Expanding Square
• Sector Search
• Overlapping Lines (2 different Creeping line ran 90deg to each other)

and many other options. Be sure to RECORD every aspect of the search because you'll want to have the ability to have Flight Review of the the search while you're migrating to another section/grid.

We also use Map Pilot and Drone Deploy (My pref is Map Pilot) to capture still images of a search area to stitch and combine into one large very HighRes image for detailed review by the IC staff.

There is an AMAZING sUAS Ap from Ireland that is being developed right now but it's not released for use in the US yet. We are still in the BETA stages but thus far it looks AWESOME for this type of missions.

 

[BigAl07]

I've been speaking with Litchi support and while they are not "planning" to offer multiple grids pre-programmed they are looking at adding something very similar (IMHO) to how DD and MP use their grids to trigger the camera shutter. This would be GREAT for a good number of our searches.

They offer no timeline only it is something they have on the "to do list".

 

[Nighthawk98TJ]

Thanks for the information, everyone. I did a little testing with Pix4Dcapture this weekend and it seems like it might be a good option for grid searching where we're just photographing the area. Unfortunately, it only worked 50% of the time for me. The first pattern worked great and auto-downloaded the images, which was helpful. The second pattern I ran appeared to work find in the air, but failed to download the images. When going back into the project to attempt to re-download, it said that the mission had not been flown. I still need to check the memory card and see if the images were actually captured the second time. Pix4D seems like a good option for what it is designed for--still images of an area. But for live searching, it leaves a little to be desired in the flexibility department for me.

Litchi has always been 100% reliable for me, so I may use Pix4D as a reference to project grid spacing, altitude, etc., then quickly make the search pattern in Litchi. As long as I know what the grid spacing needs to be versus the altitude flown, then it's pretty simple to put it together in Litchi. We don't fly huge areas anyway.

A while back, I put together the following rough parameters to use when building grid searches in Litchi. I need to test them more extensively:

Speed: 10 MPH for open field/sparse vineyard; 5 MPH for complex terrain
Altitude: 100 ft AGL
Resulting FOV Width (P3S): 150 ft
Area search lane width: 150 ft (aircraft can see 75 ft to each side of flight path at 100 ft AGL)

 

[MarkG_007]

Pix4d has numerous settings and options. In the main settings there is “ auto download after mission ends” this uploads the images to pix4d servers for processing/stitching. This you don’t need to do and will slow things down considerably. Your images will be on your card. Also once in grid there is a “cog” top right that will have adjustments for the flight. Camera angle, image overlap, trigger mode, (safe- stops the aircraft for each image, which you prob don’t want) speed etc.
So lots of variables to work with. Good luck!

(iOS) Pix4Dcapture - Manual

 

[Avocet]

Has anyone mentioned DroneHarmony? They have a grid flight right out of the box ...

They are in beta, but looks like they will be going live soon. I've not had issues yet.

Best,

 

[BigAl07]

Has anyone mentioned DroneHarmony? They have a grid flight right out of the box ...

They are in beta, but looks like they will be going live soon. I've not had issues yet.

Best,

They aren't doing an IOS version "yet" so that's out for many sUAS depts.

Also keep in mind that DroneHarmony is going to be a PAID service starting in the next month or so.

 

[Dronerangerpro]

Please consider joining SARDRONERESOURCES.COM as this will be a topic we cover in detail

Hi All,

I figured I would start a new thread for this. I am a member of a Sheriff's Office Search & Rescue Unit and we are starting up our UAS program. We currently have a mix of P3S/P4/Mavic aircraft. I have used DJI GO and Litchi primarily in the past, but I'm curious what other apps others are finding useful for Search & Rescue operations. I have looked at DroneDeploy, but it does not work with the P3S, which is what I primarily fly personally. I wish that Litchi had an easy way to setup a grid search without having to draw it out manually and set the altitudes, spacing, etc. Any others that we are missing that you may be using or recommend?

On a related note, for those that are using other apps for flying, such as Litchi, are you using those apps all the time when you fly (for manual flight, etc.), or are you using DJI GO unless there's a need for a specific feature found in another app?

Thanks for the input.

 

[Dronerangerpro]

SARDRONERESOURCES.COM

 

[AERO RVA]

SARDRONERESOURCES.COM

...that's a great UAS SAR site for all things SAR drones

 

[Dronebow]

We do and teach sUAS SAR Operations and we use a variety of Apps depending on what the need is.

First off I want to say I agree 100% on your comment:

It would be GREAT if they offered a "Menu" with possible grids and you pick the one to use and then modify it for the location.

One thing you can do is take the time to create your search grid in the office (depending on what search pattern you're looking to use) in Litchi and then COPY that pattern to a new area. Once copied you can modify the parameters (speed, altitude etc) on the new search grid.

Type of patterns you can create:

• Ceeping Line (most common)
• Expanding Square
• Sector Search
• Overlapping Lines (2 different Creeping line ran 90deg to each other)

and many other options. Be sure to RECORD every aspect of the search because you'll want to have the ability to have Flight Review of the the search while you're migrating to another section/grid.

We also use Map Pilot and Drone Deploy (My pref is Map Pilot) to capture still images of a search area to stitch and combine into one large very HighRes image for detailed review by the IC staff.

There is an AMAZING sUAS Ap from Ireland that is being developed right now but it's not released for use in the US yet. We are still in the BETA stages but thus far it looks AWESOME for this type of missions.

Do you know if Map Pilot supports the XT on an Inspire 1?

 

[BigAl07]

Do you know if Map Pilot supports the XT on an Inspire 1?

I honestly have no idea. Sorry.

 

[petered]

A new one is EagleEyes - it's a drone-piloting app for search and rescue with some built-in computer vision to help detect small objects that look different from the background. website is eagleeyessearch.com (Disclaimer - I'm a developer)

 

[ItsFitz]

Too bad it’s not IOS based.