New SAR Drone Finds Victims Via Their Cell Phone

The new Revector Detector Drone (RDD) can locate missing people through their cell phones.

The lightweight search and rescue (SAR) UAS comes equipped with a cell phone base station, according to a news release. RDD can fly over areas that are difficult to reach after a natural disaster or accident to locate survivors who have their cell phones with them.

The system mimics a baste station, so cell phones connect to it, helping SAR teams to quickly locate victims before sending rescuers in.

The drone, which can be as light as five kilograms, can monitor an area of 10 kilometers at high speed for 90 minutes. It can identify a victim within a 20-meter area.

Mountain rescue teams, police forces and the military can deploy this system for SAR missions.

“Search and rescue teams rely on quickly locating where critically injured people are to ensure fast and safe recovery,” Revector CEO Andy Gent said, according to the release. “Not knowing where a victim is means rescue teams risk not only slowing a recovery operation but also possibly risking more lives in extreme environments. RDD enables rescue teams to know exactly where injured people are on a mountain, in a forest or even in the aftermath of an earthquake as long as someone has an active cell phone.”