Exploring the use of drones for catastrophe situation reporting and damage assessment

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.

The proposed research programme will aim to facilitate maximal impact over a number of key themes: - economic, societal, environmental, regulatory, and academic.

Economic, societal and environmental impact: The research programme has been designed from the outset to consider the information needs of the business service users (insurers, civil resilience, energy industry, data providers and wider public). In particular, the Follow-on proposal will be tailored based on their priorities to further engage with the potential application of UAV technology to end user needs. This will help us to understand what information they currently lack, what information would help them respond more efficiently and rapidly and via what mechanism they would want to receive this information. The project team will draw heavily on its existing expertise and contacts through UAV service providers and the project partners (see letters for support) to maximise outcomes.

The project will impact significantly on the general infrastructure, regulatory, insurance and disaster assessment and planning sectors (e.g., clarity on losses, faster identification and quantification of damage). Making sure that for example, insurance claims are handled rapidly and accurately and resources can be deployed effectively within an emergency context will make a significant real world impact on the lives of those whose homes and businesses affected by extreme events. This in turn will maximise environmental impact through, for example, the early detection of damage to industrial processing affecting water courses and the environment in general. The proposed business service will also help utilities companies to continue providing services to the public with reduced outages. Hence, not only does the proposed service support significant economic benefits in terms of reduced costs or improved efficiencies, but it supports significant social and societal good to the general population living in catastrophe prone areas.

Regulatory impact: the project will facilitate the consolidation of the relationship between the CAA, the PI and the project partners. Collaboration with the CAA will ensure that the research programme takes into account plausible regulatory scenarios and outcomes are communicated to the CAA to highlight the regulatory needs for the use of UAVs in catastrophe/emergency situations. This will be particularly relevant within the context of flight permissions and license provision to fly over congested areas as highlighted in NE/N020316/1. A regulatory framework that supports key applications within the infrastructure sector will enable the uptake of the technology and therefore, benefit public and private sector alike.

Academic Impact: In the short term, collaboration with end users will enable the development of new ideas for future RCUK (e.g., Follow-on Fund) and Innovate UK. The Pathfinder will help establish a closer link with business services end users and explore commercialization routes through different industry partners. In the long term and as a result of follow up proposals, outcomes will be presented at key national and international conferences. The Follow-on Fund project will be sufficiently novel for the results to be published in high impact journals. All publications will be available open access through golden route. This will contribute to consolidate the PI and Co-Is track records.

The project aligns to the priorities of the space innovation and growth strategy, especially on the "use of climate and environmental monitoring from Space facility (CEMS) to process and merge streams into climate quality and other required data sets" and contributes to "assess the validity and integrity of observations, data and products". In addition, it aligns with the research priorities and specific challenges highlighted by the Roadmap for Climate Servic