How specialized drones could detect COVID-19 at crucial places

Draganfly Inc. an award-winning, industry-leading manufacturer within the commercial unmanned aerial vehicle sector has been selected as the exclusive global systems integrator for a project called the Vital Intelligence Project with Vital Intelligence Inc., a healthcare data services and deep learning company in conjunction with the University of South Australia, using technology developed with help from the Australian Department of Defense Science and Technology Group. 

The Vital Intelligence Project is a health and respiratory monitoring platform involving utilizing new and existing camera networks as well as UAVs and RPAS being immediately commercialized for health monitoring and detection of infectious and respiratory conditions including monitoring temperatures, heart and respiratory rates, amongst crowds, workforces, airlines, cruise ships, potential at-risk groups, like seniors in care facilities, convention centers, border crossings or critical infrastructure facilities. The breakthrough technology was developed in a collaboration between the University of South Australia and the DST.

Draganfly, in being selected as the exclusive integration partner on March 25, 2020, executed a binding agreement which has an initial budget of up to $1.5M to utilize its engineering, integration and distribution expertise as well as its secure supply chain for immediate commercialization and deployment of the technology.

Javaan Chahl, Defense Science and Technology Chair at the University of South Australia said, “The University and Defense supported my team’s efforts to develop automation for use in epidemics and disasters. We had imagined the technology being used in a future relief expedition to some far-away place. Now, shockingly, we see a need for its use in our everyday lives immediately. Draganfly’s industrial know-how is quickly helping us ensure our research can save lives.”

“Draganfly is honored to work on such an important project given the current pandemic facing the world with COVID-19. Health and respiratory monitoring will be vital for not only detection, but also utilizing the data to understand health trends. As we move forward, drones and autonomous technology doing detection will be an important part of ensuring public safety,” said Andy Card, Director of Draganfly and former Secretary of Transportation and White House Chief of Staff.

Dr. Jack Chow, advisor to the Vital Intelligence Project and the former first Assistant Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) on infectious diseases said: “With fighting epidemics rising as a global priority, new versatile technologies, such as humanitarian mission UAVs, are immediately needed to detect and track outbreaks so that critical interventions can be deployed sooner and with greater effectiveness.” 

The University of South Australia (UniSA) is a public research university in the Australian state of South Australia. It is a founding member of the Australian Technology Network of universities and is the largest university in South Australia with approximately 32,000 students.