Eyes in the Sky: Enhancing Public Safety Through Drones and 5G

Drones provide a critical extension of public safety capabilities, cutting down on response time, expanding reach, and streamlining worker availability. With more than a dozen use cases already in action, from surveying natural disaster zones to perimeter searches for potential threats, drones provide a clear window into the future of public safety.

Bringing their expertise from three areas of UAS innovations in public safety, this panel dives into current and future use cases to paint a picture of what advancements we need and how we can expect to get there.

Carl Blando brings his unique perspective from operating drones in a dense city, talking about the necessity of a 5G network handshake to progress operations beyond visual line of sight. The ability to vastly expand operational capabilities of drones would dramatically decrease emergency response time, enabling first responders to safely assess situations without putting people or officers in danger.

With a focus primarily on collision avoidance, Moshe Cohen speaks in depth about the importance of vehicle-to-vehicle networks to create a future with thousands of air vehicles simultaneously, safely, occupying air space.

From a technical perspective, Mike Ross speaks about the ability to get higher quality video to users, opening the door for the drone operators to not also be tasked with being the primary, or solo, sensor operator in the loop. With a focus on situational awareness and inspection, he pictures a future with a far shorter assessment period on the scene of an emergency, operating multiple drones, capturing information, securing a location, and clearing a scene faster than previously thought possible.

To end the panel, our experts are joined by moderator Charles Werner to muse on the challenges they face and how they plan to tackle them moving forward into a 5G future.

Moderator: Charles Werner, Director, DroneResponders

Panelists: Carl Blando, UAS Manager Boston Police Department; Moshe Cohen, CEO, Ciconia; Mike Ross,Sr. Director Product Management, Skydio