Soon the flight of a drone will help the Radio Club Belluno Nore in the management of emergencies. This is because, thanks to the Service Center for Volunteering, radio amateurs have had the opportunity to participate in the call for “Co-design” in the field of digitization.
Among the state-of-the-art equipment available to the association, there is therefore this new tool, which is now increasingly indispensable to facilitate the transfer of useful information to the various operating centers, reducing human risk and intervention times: “The focus of the project », Explains Luca Mares, project manager,« is implementing a technology that allows us, during our operations, to operate in greater safety with our personnel. Another objective is to expand the possibilities of radio and video intervention with greater effectiveness. There is also a social part: the re-employment of personnel with a new involvement. The senior partner, thanks to his experience, will be able to check from the mobile room what the drone sees, without going on site. The introduction of the drone ”, continues Mares,“ will also allow the elimination of the current barriers in activities and in emergencies, due to the impossibility of personally patrolling or checking certain environmental scenarios. And finally the possibility of supervising from above the maintenance and installation / disassembly works of plants or equipment supplied or for which there is an agreement in place ».
Thanks to this technological aid, the social and civil protection activities of the Radio Club will be able to expand the fields of intervention. The project will last 24 months for a total cost of 32 thousand euros, and is divided into several actions. First of all, the purchase of a drone equipped with a normal and technical camera, lighthouse, microphone and GPS module with high positioning accuracy, used in the industrial and rescue fields. An instrument that at the moment cannot fly yet, as appropriate authorizations are required. Secondly, the training of about twenty drone operators is underway. In the coming months, practical training will be activated in the mountain field and in emergencies. Through these steps, the association aims to increase, among its ranks, highly trained personnel for the purpose. In addition to greater interaction and co-operation with other entities or social realities. In fact, the Alpine Rescue, the municipal civil protection group and the Autism Belluno Group are involved in the project.
Two operators in charge will be trained within the first two groups. The Alpine Rescue, which already has experience in the use of the drone, will collaborate in the exercise activities in the provincial territory and in the experimentation of the use of the instrument in a mountain environment. The municipal group of Civil Protection will carry out a similar task with regard to emergencies and prevention on the territory. The Autism Group is a social partner: some instructors will teach the potential of the technology applied to the drone to people with autism.