Draganfly’s ‘pandemic drone’ can remotely detect people with a fever

Draganfly, an award-winning, industry-leading manufacturer within the commercial Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (“UAV”), Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (“RPAS”), and unmanned vehicle sector, today announced that it has been selected as the exclusive global systems integrator for a project (the “Vital Intelligence Project”) with Vital Intelligence Inc., a healthcare data services & deep learning company in conjunction with the University of South Australia, using technology developed with help from the Australian Department of Defence Science and Technology Group (the “DST”).

Draganfly's ‘pandemic drone' can remotely detect people with a fever

The Vital Intelligence Project is a health and respiratory monitoring platform involving utilizing new and existing camera networks as well as UAVs and RPAS being immediately commercialized for health monitoring and detection of infectious and respiratory conditions including monitoring temperatures, heart and respiratory rates, amongst crowds, workforces, airlines, cruise ships, potential at-risk groups, i.e., seniors in care facilities, convention centers, border crossings or critical infrastructure facilities. The breakthrough technology was developed in a collaboration between the University of South Australia and the DST.

Draganfly, in being selected as the exclusive integration partner on March 25, 2020, executed a binding agreement which has an initial budget of up to $1.5M to utilize its engineering, integration and distribution expertise as well as its secure supply chain for immediate commercialization and deployment of the technology.

Dr. Javaan Chahl, Defence Science and Technology Chair at the University of South Australia said, “The University and Defence supported my team's efforts to develop automation for use in epidemics and disasters. We had imagined the technology being used in a future relief expedition to some far-away place. Now, shockingly, we see a need for its use in our everyday lives immediately. Draganfly's industrial know-how is quickly helping us ensure our research can save lives.”

“Draganfly has been selected because of its proven leadership in an industry so important to public safety at such a critical time. We look forward to working with global agencies and industry to rapidly deploy this important technology,” said Cameron Chell, CEO of Draganfly.

“Draganfly is honored to work on such an important project given the current pandemic facing the world with COVID-19. Health and respiratory monitoring will be vital for not only detection, but also utilizing the data to understand health trends. As we move forward, drones and autonomous technology doing detection will be an important part of ensuring public safety,” said Andy Card, Director of Draganfly and former Secretary of Transportation and White House Chief of Staff.

Dr. Jack Chow, advisor to the Vital Intelligence Project and the former first Assistant Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) on infectious diseases said: “With fighting epidemics rising as a global priority, new versatile technologies, such as humanitarian mission UAVs, are immediately needed to detect and track outbreaks so that critical interventions can be deployed sooner and with greater effectiveness.”