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Abstract

Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) less than 55 pounds have demonstrated tremendous usefulness in emergency and disaster response, mapping, inspection, and other analytic functions (Nex & Remondino, 2014; Remondino, Barazzetti, Nex, Scaioni, & Sarazzi, 2011). UAS are useful because they can fly over contaminated or inaccessible areas to mitigate some risks to first responders of having to do these tasks themselves (Nex & Remondino, 2014), and they fast data acquisition and mapping during emergency response actions (Remondino et al., 2011). UAS are currently used in emergency response for search and rescue, thermal imaging locating hotspots in fires, and evaluating structural stability (Calams, 2018). For example, the Millstone Valley, New Jersey Fire Department reportedly uses four different DJI models in various techniques for search and rescue (Petrillo, 2018). Since these devices can provide a live video feed, they can also "provide a real-time overview on the spread of wildland fires and the potential harm to firefighters, the public and the surrounding communities" (Werner, 2015, para. 4). The New York Fire Department (FDNY) has been using HoverFly tethered sUAS equipped with video and infrared cameras at incident scenes since March 2017 to provide real-time situational and operational awareness, particularly in seeing where a fire may be traveling, but they can be also be used for fire surveillance, identifying hot spots, search and rescue, hazardous materials reconnaissance, and accident reconstruction (Petrillo, 2018). The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) uses DJI Matrice 200 Series, Matrice 600 Series, and Phantom 4 Pro sUASs equipped with electro-optic and thermal imaging cameras to identify hot-spots, perform aerial mapping, search and rescue, and for water rescues (Lillian, 2019).