Drone-as-a-first Responder: the What, Why, How and When
Tracks
Royal Poinciana
| Monday, July 14, 2025 |
| 11:00 AM - 11:30 AM |
Overview
Dr David Cole, Flyfreely
Details
Key Presentation Learnings:
1. What is drone-as-a-first responder
2. Key considerations when building drone-as-a-first responder program
2. Current constraints and emerging solutions to enable drone-as-a-first responder programs
Speaker
Dr David Cole
Ceo
Flyfreely
Drone-as-a-first responder: The what, why, how and when
Abstract
"Drone-as-a-first responder" is an emerging concept which sees drones and the pilot behind the drone being the first responder to an emergency.
The ability for drones to take off rapidly and travel without constraints make them an ideal first responder. Furthermore, their ability to provide an elevated perspective makes them ideal to provide unparalleled situational awareness.
However, regulatory and operational constraints exist to seeing this concept being a widespread reality. This presentation will introduce the concept of the drone-as-a-first responder, provide example use cases along with the current constraints. It will conclude with the emerging solutions to these constraints to ensure their technology can reach its potential.
The ability for drones to take off rapidly and travel without constraints make them an ideal first responder. Furthermore, their ability to provide an elevated perspective makes them ideal to provide unparalleled situational awareness.
However, regulatory and operational constraints exist to seeing this concept being a widespread reality. This presentation will introduce the concept of the drone-as-a-first responder, provide example use cases along with the current constraints. It will conclude with the emerging solutions to these constraints to ensure their technology can reach its potential.
Biography
Dr David Cole has been actively involved in the uncrewed systems industry for over 10 years. Starting in 2013 with the founding a commercial drone services company in Northern Australia, before pivoting the company to focus on developing the FlyFreely Drone Management Platform in 2018 to support organisations operating RPAS at scale.
Dr Cole remains at the forefront of industry developments by being an active member of several international working groups including JARUS, EUROCAE and ASTM. His current focus is on enabling complex operations through the automation of regulatory compliance and implementation of uncrewed traffic management (UTM) systems.
