Drones are learning to put out fires – MK

Drones are learning to put out fires - MK

[ad_1]

Russian cities are increasingly using intelligent video surveillance and geolocation systems, drones equipped with a laser scanner in the field of public safety. Advanced developments were discussed as part of the business program of the First All-Russian Games “Smart City. Live in sports”, held in Saratov.

The interest of officials in digital technologies was spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the self-restriction regime, interruptions began in the supply of foreign equipment used for public safety purposes. Since the beginning of the special operation in Ukraine, the number of cyber attacks has increased significantly, and many foreign service providers have left the Russian Federation. This forced the heads of municipalities to pay attention to domestic innovative developments in this area.

Recently, the digitization of urban ecosystems has intensified. According to the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation, the IQ index of Russian cities – a generalized indicator of the level of development of digital technologies in cities – increased by 16% in 2021. In the field of digitalization of the urban economy, Moscow is the leader, scoring 117.2 points out of 120 possible in the IQ index. The top 5 also includes Tyumen (100.75 points), St. Petersburg (98.13), Khanty-Mansiysk (91.61) and Nizhny Novgorod (88.26).

According to Vladimir Markin, a member of the working group of the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation for the implementation of the Smart City project, the bottleneck in the digitalization process is not the processing and storage of data, but their collection. “A new approach is required in the formation of databases. Now different departments and city services are raising drones with different loads and tasks into the sky. Although one drone, equipped with various attachments, is able to comprehensively collect indicators of methane emissions, measure infrared radiation and fires. The subject of the Federation should become the holder of the combined digital databases,” Markin noted.

In his opinion, Russian UAVs equipped with a laser scanner are most suitable for the needs of municipalities. Such drones, which shoot various information at speeds up to 160 km/h on a strip about 1 km wide, have already proven their effectiveness during monitoring of protected natural areas, the level of safety of important energy facilities and hydraulic structures.

Representatives of the government of the Saratov region spoke about the successful use of quadrocopters in the field of forest fire protection. This year, thanks to their use, the number of forest fires, despite the abnormal heat, has decreased in the region by 4 times, and their area – by 41 times compared to last year.

In the near future, the capabilities of drones for fighting fire will expand. As Sergei Koleganov, head of the Department of Advanced Technologies of the Department of Educational and Scientific and Technical Activities of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation, told MK, now operators at the agency’s facilities in Orenburg and Balashikha are learning to simultaneously raise drones to a height of up to 100 meters for a foam attack. The skills will be useful to them for extinguishing fires in residential skyscrapers and high-rise industrial facilities.

Another promising direction is the development of the state information system for emergency response in case of road accidents. According to Leonid Paramonov, head of the commercial directorate of GLONASS JSC, about 9 million cars are now connected to the system in Russia. With its help, the time of data transfer to emergency services with the exact coordinates of the accident sites takes a matter of seconds, which speeds up the search for victims and increases the chances of saving the life and health of road users. 80% of calls through the system are received automatically, when drivers and passengers cannot press the SOS button on their own. In addition, the system allows you to connect to the Roadside Assistance service, when motorists, by pressing the SOS button, can call a tow truck or order fuel delivery.

Drivers of passenger transport, taxis and ambulances equipped with an emergency call system can call the National Guard squad in the event of an emergency. The pilot project completed in Moscow, in which about 300 buses were equipped with the SOS button, was recognized as a success. Next year, the experiment is planned to be extended to the entire metropolitan public transport.

At the same time, a pilot is walking on the toll roads of the Avtodor state company in the Moscow region. To simplify and speed up the arrival of emergency commissioners, drivers just need to press the SOS button. Now such a service is already available on the 200-kilometer section of the M-4 Don highway, and it is planned to scale it to all toll highways.

The mass exit from the market of foreign providers of transport monitoring services puzzled many Russian hauliers. But the alarm turned out to be false. Since the beginning of the year, more than 70 thousand vehicles have connected to the national ERA Monitoring system.

Artificial intelligence (AI) opens up great opportunities for monitoring public safety and supporting small businesses. As Oleg Glebov, development director of the MDG Group, noted, in developed cities, using data collected by AI, the authorities suggest to entrepreneurs places where passenger traffic has grown significantly, which means it makes sense to open a new business. AI also helps to quickly understand what necessary city communications are located next to the selected object.

Yesterday, the National Center for the Development of Artificial Intelligence began its work, designed to become a platform for selecting AI solutions for business, science and the state. So do not be surprised if soon the police robots that have entered the service will appear not only in Hyderabad (India) and Dubai (UAE), but also on the streets of Russian cities.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 28867 dated September 13, 2022

Newspaper headline:
Drones in the service of security

[ad_2]

Source link