A Rapid Damage Assessments System with Machine Vision to Detect Down Utility Poles and an Off-Grid Communications and Renewable Power System, 5b.

UAV/UAS’s have become an essential tool for conducting damage assessments after a disaster, but limited bandwidth between the UAV/UAS and the ground prevent real time analysis and necessitates time consuming post processing. The ability to respond quickly is critical for providing a common operational picture. Other challenges such as the lack of power, communications, and too much data to analyze slows down the response time for conducting accurate assessments. Oceanit proposes the use of its VIPA (Versatile Information Processing Architecture) technology to conduct real-time on board image processing to identify damaged grid infrastructure using a mobile device as the camera and computer on a UAV/UAS. Oceanit’s ePoP technology will be used to provide wireless communications and power and Oceanit’s MERCI technology will be integrated to offer command and control capabilities. Leveraging upon previously developed technology, a package system will be developed that will identify and report damaged grid infrastructure more quickly and reliably than currently possible. The use of UAV/UAS’s are automating processes that were once highly labor intensive. Use of better image processing tools for real time data analysis is valuable in several market sectors including infrastructure, defense, agriculture, insurance, energy, entertainment, environmental, health and safety, and more. Real time image processing on the drone has the potential to be disruptive in a large number of business models in terms of making them lower cost, more efficient, and less risky.