Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/P018890/1
Exploring the use of drones for catastrophe situation reporting and damage assessment
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Dr M Rivas Casado, Cranfield University, School of Water, Energy and Environment
- Grant held at:
- Cranfield University, School of Water, Energy and Environment
- Science Area:
- Atmospheric
- Earth
- Marine
- Terrestrial
- Overall Classification:
- Unknown
- ENRIs:
- Environmental Risks and Hazards
- Global Change
- Natural Resource Management
- Science Topics:
- Surveying
- Urban & Land Management
- Robotics & Autonomy
- Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
- Survey & Monitoring
- Robotics & Autonomy
- Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
- Abstract:
- This proposal targets the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for catastrophe monitoring and assessment. With global economic losses due to natural disasters being in the order of $150 billion per annum, the uptake of drone based imaging technologies that can provide timely and on-demand information to meet the needs of end users such as first responders (e.g. civil resilience), NGOs, commercial companies (e.g. loss adjusters) is of paramount importance. This Follow-on Fund Pathfinder will look at quantifying the market opportunity for drone-based imaging services within the context of catastrophe situation reporting and damage assessment and in a range of potential scenarios. In turn, this will enable us to identify the sectors with the greatest market need, and develop a competitive business offering to achieve maximal commercial impact. The proposed work will be carried out in collaboration with Oxford University Innovation Ltd., widely known for offering consulting advice in technology transfer and innovation management to clients from the public and private sectors, in the UK and internationally. Their role is to facilitate the flow of new, disruptive technologies from technology providers such as universities, institutes and early stage companies to technology seekers such as mature companies looking to create ground-breaking products and new business divisions. On completion, the project will provide a good understanding of the likely market potential for drone based imaging technologies around which a Follow-on-Fund proposal will be based. The Follow-on-Fund project will look at developing algorithms for the automated identification of impact features from the high resolution aerial imagery collected with the UAVs. The aim will be to create a library of object/damage recognition that is accessible to the wider public via existing data transfer platforms and can integrate multiple data formats. As we develop a library of information and image recognition functions, the long-term aim would be to develop a business service based around an automated damage recognition system - where collection of data from licensed UAV pilots on extreme events can be analysed through the system to calculate damage extent and volume and location of debris. This would in the long-term assist infrastructure providers, insurers and disaster responders with rapid information on extreme events for planning and disaster management; it will also make a significant difference to the scale (high resolution > 5 cm), timeliness (on-demand) and type of information that can be detected for management and assessment purposes. The extracted information will directly feed into a delivery platform, as a commercial product or tool, accessible to any company interested in catastrophe metric estimation, e.g., model validation or calibration. The Follow-on-Fund Pathfinder project would act as an essential precursor for the development of this business service and associated products and it is key to building a compelling case for the Follow-on-Fund that achieves research impact through exploitation.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/P018890/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Innovation
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Follow on Fund Pathfinder
This grant award has a total value of £9,640
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| DI - Other Costs | Indirect - Indirect Costs | DA - Investigators | DA - Estate Costs | DA - Other Directly Allocated | DI - T&S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £4,032 | £1,881 | £2,784 | £475 | £65 | £403 |
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