Q&A: Drones in emergencies
Companies are developing tiny drones to help in disaster zones.
CHEMICAL SPILL? BIOLOGICAL hazard? Mysterious attack? There’s no need to risk the lives of human investigators — instead, send in Snake Eyes.
That’s not the cheesy name of a 1980s action hero, but a chemical-sniffing, 3D-sensing drone being developed by Milton Keynes company Autonomous Devices, one of four firms named as the winners of a Home Office and Ministry of Defence competition. Robots have long been used to detonate bombs or to take readings, but these drones take it a step – or flight – further.
Snake Eyes is a tiny drone that can slip through a space as thin as a letterbox, while capturing 3D images and sniffing for chemicals. Other winners include BMT Defence Services’ unmanned aerial vehicle that senses gases, Horiba Mira’s robot that uses neural networks to assist with decontamination missions, and Loughborough University, which is working on a sensor-laden drone that slips into a pocket. We spoke to Ken Wahren, founder of Autonomous Devices, to find out about Snake Eyes.
How small is Snake Eyes? There are two variants of Snake Eyes: a small version, designed to fit through a mail slot – an opening measuring 230 x 30mm – whilst carrying a 400g payload for 15 minutes, and a version that is 50% larger and carries a 700g payload for a slightly longer duration.
How do you control it? Snake Eyes is controlled via a tablet PC. The control interface is as intuitive as Google Street View – the operator is presented with an image from an onboard camera, and simply clicks on the image to rotate or move the vehicle through the environment. The vehicle takes care of path-planning and obstacle-avoidance using a range of sensors including stereo vision. Because communication between the drone and the tablet can’t be guaranteed, the system has a feature enabling the vehicle to retrace its steps autonomously.
What’s Snake Eyes designed to be used for? Snake Eyes helps emergency responders to quickly understand a hazardous environment, such as a factory where there has been a chemical spill, or an underground station where there has been a suspected chemical attack. Using a special laser-based sensor developed by a partner company, Pendar Technologies, Snake Eyes can remotely identify a range of hazardous substances, and data from other onboard sensors is used to generate a 3D map.
This quick intelligence is vital to ensuring public safety and planning a response that minimises risk to responders. As it’s a robotic solution, responders don’t have to rely on cumbersome safety equipment for protection, and Snake Eyes can get to positions that would be difficult or impossible for a responder to reach.
How does it sniff for chemicals? Snake Eyes uses a laser-based sensor to detect harmful chemicals. The operator can steer the sensor using a gimbal – similar to the ones used for cameras on personal drones – to aim the laser at a suspicious pool of liquid.
How does it lift so much weight? A key innovation in Snake Eyes is a new control technology that enables the vehicle to use two large rotors instead of four small rotors. Most drones have at least four rotors because this makes the control scheme very simple. However, in order to fit into tight spaces whilst still lifting a heavy payload, we had to eliminate two of the rotors and develop a new way to control the vehicle. Our solution provides high control power, with minimal impact on rotor efficiency, whilst still meeting very tight constraints on the frontal profile of the vehicle.
When will Snake Eyes be ready? Snake Eyes is still in development. Within 12 months, the system will be demonstrated to end users from the MoD and Home Office in a realistic environment, under the Defence and Security Accelerator’s Autonomy in Hazardous Scene Assessment programme. Although we don’t have a price yet, our aim is to keep the cost of the system down to the level of drones currently being used by military operators and some law enforcement agencies.