Drones are pretty useful tools to have around, especially if you happen to be the military and want to scout a particular area without having to put the lives of your pilots at risk. Apart from that, there are also other interesting ways to make use of a drone – in civilian life, for example. Lockheed Martin, a company that is no stranger when it comes to delivering space-age technology, has just developed new UAV or drone that will assist in the search for missing people, at the same time lowering the amount of time and costs involved.
Lockheed Martin has partnered with nonprofit organization Project Lifesaver in order to create a version of its quadcopter Indago UAV, which will be able to assist in the location of people with cognitive disabilities or diseases, as those conditions tend to make them more prone than the regular Joe to wander around, and hence, be lost.
Project Lifesaver was first established before the new millennium, where those with autism, Alzheimer’s, Down’s syndrome, and other mental issues, will wear a personal transmitter on the ankle or wrist. So far, such a configuration has worked wonders, assisting in the recovery of close to 3,000 people, sporting an average time of 30 minutes for each recovery.
The new Indago UAV will be remote controlled and has a three mile operating range, sporting enough juice under the hood to last for up to 50 minutes thereabouts, as it zips across airspace at approximately 400 feet, with a maximum height of up to 18,000 feet, now how about that? Tipping the scales at just five pounds thereabouts, it is ready to be deployed in approximately a couple of minutes. Right now it has seen commercial and military action, so perhaps its usability can be further expanded. Having a drone stream live video is definitely cool.