The second COLLARIS Plenary Meeting (PM) brought together emergency responders, drone experts, and public safety officials in Skövde, Sweden. Its participants highlighted the growing importance of drones in emergency response, and shared current use cases in their respective organizations such as fire alarms, wildfires, rescue operations and search missions. Besides that, an innovative method that uses drones to assist in safely puncturing gas cylinders during fires was shared. The participants also reflected on the various challenges they have experienced in recent years, e.g., not having enough personnel to fly drones, airspace coordination, the implementation of 2D/3D mapping, and BVLOS flights (where the drone is operated beyond the direct line of sight of the pilot). The full report of the meeting is now publicly available (see link below).

The PM took place on May 24, 2024 – after two days of intense live and virtual emergency simulations at Hasslum training grounds (one of COLLARIS’ trials) where the focus was on utilizing Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) in high-pressure scenarios such as apartment fires and terrorist attacks. The trial was focused on the multi-agency managerial level and its scenarios were designed to necessitate the use of several UAS and thereby enhance training related to air traffic management (ATM), safety, and collaboration between the different organizations involved. 

The meeting was attended by members of COLLARIS’ Strategic Group (representatives of core consortium partners: CIK CBK, MSB, DCNA and VALABRE, except for KIOS due to other urgent commitments, as well as the Swedish Police and the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL) as COLLARIS’ associated partners). Other participants included representatives from Sweden, Denmark, Croatia and Portugal.

Rasmus Frid from Skaraborg Fire and Rescue Service shared an innovative method where drones assist in safely puncturing gas cylinders during fires by shooting at them with a rifle (most other participants of the PM had never heard of this method before). The method works as follows: The drone flies above the cylinder providing light for the shooter. Furthermore, the drone’s thermal camera is used to see where the bullet will hit as well as sound to convey warning information for potential surrounding people.

Illegal drone flights and further challenges

Following the presentation of Jonas Fröjmark (Södertörn Fire Protection Association, SBFF) from Sweden, who pointed out that a method to calculate the efficiency of the use of drones would be very useful, a discussion on the problem of illegal drone flights in restricted areas arose (e.g., private drones flying nearby during a rescue operation also using a drone). There was a consensus that most of these flights do not have a criminal nature. Rather, the participants agreed that many private pilots simply do not know (or ignore the fact) that they cannot fly everywhere, and that this phenomenon might become a bigger issue in the future.

Other speakers from Croatia, Portugal, and Sweden discussed topics such as affordable technology, enhanced training, and improved drone coordination. The session concluded with a call to address challenges like airspace management and regulatory improvement to ensure the potential of drones is fully realized in emergency response.

The Plenary Meeting was deemed successful by its participants from Sweden and abroad who – apart from learning more about COLLARIS and the small-scale foresight study, and being able to discuss ATM issues – also appreciated the informal networking opportunities offered by the event.

Find the full report of the Plenary Meeting (a modified version of D7.2B) on the COLLARIS website. 
The aforementioned foresight study will also be available soon.