From The Washington Post:
Jerry Hendrix, chief engineer at the Lone Star UAS Center at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, brought a team of eight people and four drones to Wimberley, Tex.
The drones can safely fly lower than helicopters, and provide aerial footage at a fraction of the cost. Hendrix’s group spent Thursday focused on inspecting massive debris piles — some 20 feet high — that could be dangerous for a person to walk on. The drone’s camera provided live video footage, which streamed on a monitor in the back of the group’s SUV…
…“We’re used to conducting testing in a controlled environment. In this case we’re in a chaotic environment,” Hendrix said. “We’re still trying to understand and assess where drones can be used in the search and rescue and how to coordinate with the manned operations.”…
…The American Red Cross is interested in using drones for disaster relief efforts, and is waiting for it to be legal to do so. Others have flown drones to find missing persons.
“People across the nation are so afraid of drones. The connotation of drones carrying weapons and also spying on them as they do their daily business,” Hendrix said. “We’re trying to make sure people can understand and appreciate the good side or robotics and drones. This is a case where it’s definitely an advantage to have a tool like drones.”
Welcome to drone day on the Adafruit blog. Every Monday we deliver the latest news, products and more from the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), quadcopter and drone communities. Drones can be used for video & photography (dronies), civil applications, policing, farming, firefighting, military and non-military security work, such as surveillance of pipelines. Previous posts can be found via the #drone tag and our drone / UAV categories.