Well, every search is different.
It certainly affects
all of us in the Great Smoky Mountains,
Park Ranger Jared Saint Clair says
on search and rescue missions.
There's no substitute for boots
on the ground and eyes in the air.
In September and October of 2018,
when hiker Susan Clements was
missing near Clingmans Dome,
it was the first time testing a
new tool in addition to all the
other tried and true methods.
We've
not used drones before that particular
search, not for search and rescue.
The drones that we were
using came from Oakridge.
They had capabilities on
there that we didn't have.
We had a missing hiker and they
asked us to come and participate
with our with our systems.
That was the first time we
responded to an actual emergency.
The team at Oak Ridge National
Laboratory has a variety of drones,
some of them built from scratch.
So we've got a few of our unmanned aircraft.
One is our heavy lift quadcopter,
we call it ORNL stroke that we
designed and built here in House
long endurance fixed wing aircraft.
Some of our platforms will carry just
a regular steel camera and we also
have some thermal cameras as well.
Whatever devices the drones are carrying,
the revolution comes from computing
power. We use the drones as primarily
as tools to collect that data.
And really the magic happens in what
we do with the data on the back end.
ORNL can quickly process
massive amounts of information.
In the Clements case,
it was thousands of high resolution
photographs of the scene,
all combined for one huge
snapshot of the search area.
What's mostly speed? I mean,
how much faster you're able
to stitch images together?
Their first thought was to scan
for any pixels that matched
the color of Clement's clothes,
and then when we got there,
we realized that she was wearing
colors that matched the terrain
Clements was wearing green and Gray,
impossible to pick out.
So they shifted the photos to a new purpose.
Creating real time maps of
a mountain landscape that
constantly changes in the park.
They have landslides constantly,
so having real time information is very
important for us because a map may not
capture what's really out there right now
and it's near real time as possible.
We're trying to take that imagery
and convert it into a very accurate,
detailed imagery and map of the area.
The drones let crews see rockslides,
downed trees and other obstacles that
would normally slow them down. Since
we have different angles,
we can create a 3D model so then
they can find a faster route.
Maybe they don't need to repel
down the side of a Cliff.
We had high hopes of actually
finding the individual.
It was just a very, very
difficult problem. After a weeklong search,
crews found Clement's body in a rugged area.
She died from hypothermia,
likely on the first night she was missing,
before any search could have saved her.
Tragic ending, but still the
beginning of a learning process.
We were severely limited
by the weather, by the fog.
If we're going to respond to
something this in the future,
we have to have sensors that can
operate through fog and not have to
worry about what the weather's doing.
There are also regulations that
require drone pilots to remain within
a certain distance of aircraft.
ORNL's dreaming of limitless range
with a network of drones proven
to safely fly themselves with
just a few clicks on a map,
click a few buttons and then if
I want to send it somewhere,
relatively easy change to guided.
So this vehicle is now taking off.
And so this is powerful and that
we can control these vehicles from
essentially anywhere in the world. We're
kind of transforming the way we we do drones.
We're really connecting them to the
Internet with unmanned vehicles,
and autonomous vehicles are
really going to be the future.
Improving these connections and
speed could also make drones a
standard piece of safety equipment
ready to take off in an emergency.
You can fly in conditions that
wouldn't be safe for a helicopter
and their crew to fly in.
A huge advantage of the drone.
It's you're not putting
anyone at Risk, Saint Clair
says. The technology is still new.
And there is no substitute for boots on
the ground and actual eyes in the air.
But he expects drones to evolve
and grow into an additional tool
that can help save lives when
we look at emerging technology.
And if it means the difference between
life and death, we'll certainly try it.
You know gridge, Jim Matheny WB IR 10 news.