Drone Monitoring

As cities throughout the country seek new ways to improve public safety and public services while reducing costs, the use of drone monitoring is quickly transforming the way many municipal departments carry out their missions.

Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), are currently used for a broad range of purposes, from continuous monitoring of crowds and providing aid to emergency responders to inspecting critical infrastructure and surveying damage from storms. Drones may be equipped with a variety of sensors and cameras that deliver a wealth of information to city officials and emergency personnel, including thermal imaging cameras, RFID asset tracking, gas sensors and motion detection sensors. In addition to collecting information through drone monitoring, drones may be tasked with delivering life-saving materials to people in emergencies, or even carrying automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) to people in life-threatening situations who can’t immediately be reached by emergency personnel.

Like other smart city and digital government innovations, drone monitoring holds promise for a number of smart city applications.

• Infrastructure monitoring. Drone monitoring can help to dramatically improve a city’s ability to monitor critical infrastructure security for bridges, tunnels and buildings at a fraction of the cost of performing these tasks with human inspections.
• Transportation monitoring. Drones can help to track the flow of traffic throughout the city and to identify dangerous obstacles such as fallen trees or flooded roads.
• Search and rescue. Drone monitoring technology can help to find people lost in forests or at sea, and can deliver emergency supplies such as water, food, communications devices and medical supplies.
• Evaluating events. Drone monitoring is a critical tool for police and fire departments to assess emergency situations such as fires, floods or active crime scenes without needing to expose first responders to risk.
• Post-emergency assessment. Drones can help to determine the extent of damage after a storm or flood, collecting information much more quickly and safely than is possible with emergency and recovery personnel.
• Tracking crowds. Drone monitoring can help law enforcement to monitor the movement of crowds and to identify suspicious behavior.
• Firefighting. Drones can help to start backfires that limit the spread of an approaching blaze.

How drone monitoring technology works

In addition to the technology to actually fly an unmanned aerial vehicle, effective drone monitoring relies on a variety of technologies to serve the purposes of smart cities.

• Sensors, cameras and IoT-enabled devices. To capture the images and data that cities require, drones can be outfitted with technology for monitoring a wide range of data points.
• High-speed connectivity. Because drone monitoring is often used in mission-critical and life-threatening situations, superfast connectivity is essential. Drone monitoring programs must have access to secure, high-bandwidth and highly reliable connectivity.
• Analytic software. Drones, along with thousands of other smart city sensors, produce vast amounts of data that must be aggregated, processed and analyzed to produce actionable intelligence. In a search and rescue mission, for example, analytic software can scan video data from drones to search for signs of life much faster than human beings can.

Connectivity for drone monitoring with Spectrum Enterprise

To support the connectivity requirements of drone monitoring programs – as well as smart kiosks, online permitting and other digital government services – Spectrum Enterprise has built a nationwide fiber network that spans more than 840,000 miles. With another $25 billion investment in expanded capacity to be completed by 2021, Spectrum Enterprise is helping to bring the promise of smart city innovation to communities throughout the United States.

Spectrum Enterprise provides the foundation of connectivity required for drone monitoring and other smart city technologies, offering:

• A two-way, fully interactive digital network with symmetrical connectivity speeds up to 100 Gbps for local governments and enterprise clients.
• High-speed connectivity for homes and businesses, offering gigabit connections throughout the Spectrum service area.
• Cellular connectivity for drone monitoring and other smart city technologies, through one of the country’s largest LTE cellular networks.
• WiFi connectivity at more than 350,000 hotspots throughout the country.

Learn more about Spectrum Smart Cities at www.spectrumsmartcities.com.