Small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS), an emerging and rapidly developing technology, provide the Coast Guard with an opportunity to leverage existing partnerships and local capabilities to enhance maritime domain awareness along the inland river waterways. Equipped with integrated electro-optical and infrared (IR) sensors, sUAS have the potential to create a decision advantage for response personnel conducting a variety of Coast Guard missions, including search and rescue, marine environmental response, and aids to navigation. sUAS should be seen as a force multiplier that will increase responder safety and reduce response time, while simultaneously providing the domain awareness necessary to carry out inland river missions.
The inland Coast Guard region is made up of more than 10,000 miles of navigable waterways (Figure 1). Three operational units cover the area and are staggeringly separated geographically. Due to the “tyranny of distance,” the Coast Guard heavily relies on local resources to assist with Coast Guard missions. While statutory authority precludes local entities from assisting with some Coast Guard functions, a few time-critical missions can benefit from local responder engagement. Coordinated deployment of sUAS platforms will have an immediate impact on mission effectiveness throughout the region. As an increasing number of state and local partners acquiring this technology, the Coast Guard is identifying sUAS resources that would yield positive results across its missions.
Figure 1
1sUAS, as defined by the Federal Aviation Administration, weigh between 4.5 and 55 pounds and can typically fly up to 4 hours at a time. The systems referenced in this paper are multi-rotor, typically weigh less than 10 pounds, and can fly for 10–15 minutes. They can fly up to 400 feet in altitude, which provides broad area searches in seconds. These assets are relatively inexpensive, with complete commercial systems available for as little as $5,000. Because sUAS fly at low altitudes, inexpensive sensors can be used to capture high-quality data. The sUAS considered here are modular in design, which allow for different sensors to be mounted for different uses. Electro-optical, infrared, and Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) sensors all have the ability to aid Coast Guard responders executing missions on the inland rivers.
sUAS are easily deployable and programmable. They have a small footprint, which allows the user to easily store and transport it in a Pelican case (Figure 2). Mission planning software is user-friendly, allowing an operator with limited sUAS experience to learn how to plan missions in only a few hours. An entire mission sequence can be planned and monitored from a handheld device. Furthermore, autopilot software can be used to enable completely autonomous flight, take-offs, and landings.
Figure 2
In addition, the capability to stream live video to command centers or emergency operation centers makes sUAS an ideal maritime domain awareness tool for various Coast Guard missions. During operational tests in the spring of 2017 in Coast Guard Sector Upper Mississippi River’s area of responsibility (AOR), sUAS streamed data successfully to a command center and handheld devices. This capability allows Coast Guard members and other emergency responders in the field to maintain open and accurate communications. Real-time streaming can provide the situational awareness necessary to make time-sensitive decisions that could be crucial to saving lives and ensuring the safety of emergency first responders.
The Coast Guard units in the inland rivers region have a limited number of resources for accomplishing their missions. A handful of response boats, primarily for ports, waterways, and coastal security missions, are the only assets available for response operations. The Coast Guard does not have organic air assets in the inland rivers region. Individual Coast Guard units are currently prohibited from procuring and operating their own sUAS until the Coast Guard can establish a program to provide the appropriate systems and training to operators. Until the research, acquisition, and policy processes are complete, relying on local emergency response partners with sUAS capability is the next-best option.
Given the size of the AOR, there are not enough Coast Guard resources to cover the thousands of miles of navigable waters and multiple states in the inland rivers region. The challenges of distance and waterway accessibility for asset response, in addition to the lack of airborne assets, make it clear that the Coast Guard must continually foster partnerships with state and municipal authorities (and the river industry) to conduct mission requirements such as lifesaving search and rescue operations.
During search-and-rescue missions in major metro areas, the Coast Guard often seeks local partner resources to provide the quickest response. Police departments, fire departments, and volunteer rescue corps generally have ready boats and sometimes manned aircraft. An increasing number are in the possession of sUAS devices like the one in Figures 3 and 4.
Figure 3
Figure 4
In rural areas, which cover much of the geography in the inland rivers region, many sheriff’s departments and local fire departments have ready boats. Most are not in possession of manned aircraft assets, but due to the low cost to operate, several of these departments either own or are investigating sUAS for regional use.[1] In addition to having boats in the water, an increasing number of industry partners (such as harbor masters and marinas) are also investigating sUAS for security and safety purposes.[2] The state police, Department of Natural Resources, highway patrol, and park rangers also provide assets in support of Coast Guard missions. While they are less likely to have ready boats, they are more likely to have manned or unmanned aircraft.
Internationally and domestically, sUAS are used for search and rescue and disaster response. In 2015, sUAS were used to locate 200 people after flash flooding in India.[3] In Vesthavia Hills, Alabama, firefighters used sUAS to locate four people whose vessel was overdue to its destination on the Cahaba River. The victims’ cell phones were used to get a starting location, and an sUAS, equipped with an infrared camera, was deployed. Within 90 minutes of beginning the search, the victims were located and rescued.[4] Additionally, a volunteer with the Joshua Fire Department in Texas used his personal sUAS to locate a truck that had washed off the road during flooding, after traditional search and rescue methods yielded negative results in an hour-long search for the truck. Within 45 seconds of launching, the sUAS spotted the truck and responders delivered a safety line to the victims for rescue.[5] Not only are sUAS being used to locate victims, but interchangeable parts allow users to actively engage (e.g. deliver life-saving equipment) in the course of search and rescue operations.
sUAS are now widely used for commercial applications such as agriculture, construction, infrastructure inspection, insurance, photography. There are increasing public safety instances of sUAS being used to aid in disaster relief, emergency response, search and rescue, and emergency management. Outside St. Louis, Missouri, the Monarch and Pattonville Fire Protection districts use sUAS technology for aerial reconnaissance, hazardous material support, technical search and rescue, and wide-area response mapping.[6] It is not difficult to imagine the successful application of sUAS for Coast Guard missions in the inland rivers, especially search and rescue. Missions like marine environmental response and aids to navigation are also front-runners for sUAS.
On the most basic level, sUAS can support routine operations by improving situational awareness. In addition to using sUAS in search and rescue, the Coast Guard could also apply them to pollution response. The service could identify the leading edge of an oil spill, or other collection points along the rivers, in a timely and more cost-effective way, with an sUAS as opposed to manned aircraft. More advanced sensors could be used to determine if hazardous materials are present.
Besides response missions, there are innovative applications for sUAS in the Coast Guard’s prevention arena. In the event of a marine casualty (e.g. bridge allision), investigators flying an sUAS at the same elevation as the pilot house on the same track line obtained from the vessel, can acquire a vantage point from the vessel to identify potential factors leading to the casualty. The aids to navigation mission is vital to safe, secure and efficient navigation. Inland river tenders are responsible for ensuring buoys and shore aids accurately mark waterways. Due to the vast riverine AOR, with its constantly fluctuating water levels, it is difficult to maintain adaptable waterway restoration capabilities. While sUAS cannot replace lost or off-station aids, sUAS launched as forward spotters can ensure more efficient use of cutter time and fuel, which translates to minimizing disruptions to the movement of goods and people on the navigable waterways.
Situational awareness means seeing the bigger picture and being able to prioritize. The ability to launch an sUAS for “triage” purposes provides a new level of decision advantage. Coast Guard assets are a limited commodity; sUAS launched in advance will give the operational commander a view of the playing field to direct assets to the highest consequence area. Calculated resource allocation—as opposed to launching expensive boats or aircraft for unverified target searches—saves significant time and money.
The Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue at Texas A&M University aims to improve disaster response and relief through robotic technologies.[7] The group comprises university researchers, first responders, and industry experts. It has deployed sUAS to several flooding events and compiled resultant data into guides and best practices. Their published research on the use of on sUAS during flooding and other disasters is an excellent resource for the Coast Guard to understand where sUAS fits in the emergency management/incident command construct.
Collaboration with first responders to conduct search and rescue drills and disaster response exercises is mutually beneficial. The Coast Guard will stay informed on the latest sUAS technology and afford first responders an opportunity to operate in a multi-agency response construct during large-scale disaster response events. Through these training events, there will be an understanding of how to deploy these assets in environments where manpower and resources are constrained. The ability to quickly search an area without waiting for boat or air crews to be diverted from another area increases the effectiveness of the disaster response and will yield dividends in life-saving situations when time is of the essence.
sUAS technology has great potential to be a force multiplier in the inland rivers. These assets are highly customizable; user friendly; and are relatively easy to assemble, launch, operate, recover, and transport. This makes them an ideal tool for real-time field operations. However, the current Coast Guard is reliant upon partner agencies to employ sUAS technology. Continually strengthening existing partnerships and identifying new partnerships within first responder and partner agency networks is essential to mission success while the Coast Guard’s acquisition and operational policies are being developed.
Endnotes
[1] During spring 2017 meetings with area partners, the authors inquired about organizations that owned or had interest in sUAS.
[2] Information obtained during discussions with local area partners.
[3] The Economist, “Taking Flight,” June 8, 2017, http://www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2017-06-08/civilian-drones.
[4] “Vestavia Hills firefighters deploy high-tech drone for Cahaba River search and rescue operation,” WVTM 13, http://www.wvtm13.com/article/vestavia-hills-firefighters-turn-to-drone-for-daring-water-rescue/10231287.
[5] Danielle Muoio, “How drones are turning everyday citizens into superheroes,” Business Insider, 26 December 2015, http://www.businessinsider.com/drones-aid-in-search-and-rescue-2015-12/#one-day-in-may-fort-worth-texas-experienced-terrible-flooding-it-was-so-bad-that-the-mobile-home-of-local-residents-tracey-and-bill-kastel-was-completely-surrounded-by-water-3.
[6] Patrick Clark, “Pattonville Fire Protection District using drones to help fight fires,”
30 October 2015, http://fox2now.com/2015/10/30/pattonville-fire-protection-district-using-drones-to-help-fight-fires; Casey Nolen and KSDK, Drones on duty with firefighters: How the use of drones could be key to the success of area firefighters, 10 November 2015,
http://www.ksdk.com/news/drones-on-duty-with-firefighters/40552462;
Matt LaVanchy, “December 30,2015 St. Louis County Flooding Assessment,” 31 December 2015, YouTube, https://youtu.be/meaLXy2YgHE.
[7] The Center for Robotic Search and Rescue, CRASAR.org.
