{"id":21263,"date":"2022-03-09T21:48:13","date_gmt":"2022-03-09T21:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=21263"},"modified":"2022-03-09T21:48:54","modified_gmt":"2022-03-09T21:48:54","slug":"ncdot-launches-national-first-with-tethered-drones-on-imap-trucks-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/north-carolina\/ncdot-launches-national-first-with-tethered-drones-on-imap-trucks-2\/%20","title":{"rendered":"NCDOT Launches National First with Tethered Drones on IMAP Trucks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photo above – A tethered drone is being raised by an operator during training in January.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two N.C. Department of Transportation programs combined\nto be the first in the nation to launch an innovative technology pilot with\ntheir safety service patrol that should improve safety on North Carolina\nroadways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statewide Incident Management Assistance Patrol<\/a> (IMAP) program and the Division of Aviation’s Unmanned Aircraft System<\/a> (UAS) program recently helped develop and deploy the operation of tethered drones from select IMAP vehicles. This helps responders assess incidents, provide situational awareness to the NCDOT Statewide Transportation Operations Center (STOC) and Traffic Management centers (TMCs) and assist with overall traffic management of the incidents. The deployment of this technology was realized as a result of a federal innovation grant received in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A drone used for tethered operations.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlong our interstates, where our IMAP patrols operate,\nthere are gaps in camera coverage, so we don’t have perfect situational\nawareness,” said State Traffic Operations Engineer Dominic Ciaramitaro.\n\u201cOur tethered drones will help us fill those gaps.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditionally, traffic operations staff views video feeds\nat the STOC\/TMC through traffic cameras or they receive reports from responders\nin the field.  Tethered drones safely\noffer another method to provide more information in real time, with higher\nquality video, and for long periods of time. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMAP trucks are equipped with multiple specialized tools\nto assist stranded motorists or scene management with first responders. The\ntethered drones will be just one more resource in their toolkit. The drone can\nfly up to 150 feet to take video and livestream it to the STOC\/regional TMC as\nwell as to emergency management personnel at the incident. This instant\ninformation can provide a safer environment for those on scene or approaching\nan incident and allow the centers to better manage traffic and share more\naccurate traveler information to the public. The systems are highly portable\nand can be quickly launched and recovered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IMAP team has two tethered drone systems they will be\ntesting as part of the pilot. The UAS program and IMAP program team trained the\nfirst IMAP supervisor in January. IMAP used it within days of the training to\nsurvey a crash near the U.S. 13 and Interstate 95 interchange in Fayetteville\nas its first operation in the field. The drone was in the air for nearly five\ncontinuous hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMAP is managed through the divisions and is supported statewide by NCDOT’s Traffic Operations section, which is part of the Transportation Systems Management and Operations unit. The Division of Aviation advised and supported the unit with procuring, testing and training of the tethered drone systems as part of its work to expand beneficial drone use across NCDOT. The NCDOT’s Traffic Operations section will consider future deployment of tethered drones upon completion of the pilot’s evaluation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\nPlease see video from the final training here<\/a> and see more of the Fotokite drone in action here<\/a>.\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo above – A tethered drone is being raised by an operator during training in January. Two N.C. Department of Transportation programs combined to be the first in the nation to launch an innovative technology pilot with their safety service patrol that should improve safety on North Carolina roadways. The statewide Incident Management Assistance Patrol […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21264,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[116,53,127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-front-page-slider","category-north-carolina","category-unmanned-systems"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/unnamed-edit-3.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21266,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21263\/revisions\/21266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}