National Center For Medical Readiness partners with Ohio/Indiana UAS Center

Wright State’s National Center for Medical Readiness will partner with the Ohio/Indiana Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center to expand UAS efforts supporting first responder and emergency management training. This photo is from Wright State Research Institute’s first UAS research flight at last fall.

The Ohio/Indiana Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center (UASC) announced that it has officially formalized a partnership with Wright State University and its National Center for Medical Readiness (NCMR).

The UASC is working with NCMR to expand unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) efforts supporting first responder and emergency management training.

The advantage of flying UAS is to provide situational awareness to first responders. Deploying a UAS during an emergency situation can provide critical information that can be used to find survivors or to assess damage during accidents and disasters.

“Simulating emergency situations is what we do here at the National Center for Medical Readiness,” said NCMR Director Rufus Smith. “Using advanced software to model and simulate the use of UAS in emergency environments will help us better understand how we can use this new technology to save lives.”

Last fall, the UASC and the Wright State Research Institute conducted its first flight operations at Wilmington, Ohio, Airpark for modeling and simulation research.

“NCMR is accomplishing critical training for first responders. We are working to support their efforts to enable first responders to utilize UAS technologies,” said Dick Honneywell, UASC executive director. “The UAS center is also working closely with Wright State University to establish modeling and simulation software that aids flight planning, provides added safety for flight operations, creates an environment for training and enables research and development. These capabilities will allow NCMR to accomplish needed planning and training before first responders are engaged in real life emergencies.”

First responders and emergency management are believed to be one of the first users of UAS technology. Reports project the UAS industry will become an $82 billion industry and create 100,000 jobs over the next 10 years. Precision agriculture is predicted to be approximately 80 percent of the UAS industry.

The OH/IN UASC is a joint venture between the states of Ohio and Indiana. Its mission is to advance UAS commercialization and support flight operations for government and agencies. It offers a mix of services and a variety of test ranges and capabilities to support research, development, testing and evaluation of UAS technologies for businesses, government and academia.