Ellie McCann

The NATO-backed competition advancing understanding of search and rescue drones

In-Depth

Drones are becoming an invaluable tool in search and rescue operations. Ellie McCann got a first-hand look at a NATO-backed competition to advance the technology.

Drone viewing gallery
Drone viewing gallery - Dr Shamim Qadir, City St Georges

PWC’s latest Skies Without Limits report predicts that drones could contribute up to £45bn to the UK economy by 2030. It’s clear to see why: engineers are continually pushing the boundaries of this technology for a growing range of applications.

The Engineer was invited to witness one particular area of advancement in drone capabilities: search and rescue operations. As part of the €1.2m SAPIENCE (Sense & Avoid - a cooPeratIvE droNe CompEtition) programme, funded through NATO’s Science for Peace and Security (SPS) scheme, the event is one of the first to test fully autonomously controlled drones without human interaction.

“SAPIENCE is encouraging participating teams to compete with each other to demonstrate best solutions and approaches to completing tasks based on real-world scenarios,” said Ettore Marchesoni, SPS advisor and programme manager. “It is grounded in technical challenges identified by the NATO Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) community, such as sensing and avoidance, navigation in GNSS-denied environments, and fault tolerance.

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drones
search and rescue