Emerngency Response Drone
The Emergency Response Drone is a proof-of-concept autonomous system designed to enhance humanitarian efforts through real-time situational awareness and distributed data processing. By leveraging Qlik Core and IoT integration, the drone acts as an edge-computing node, providing 911 operators with immediate, high-fidelity data from incident scenes. The system utilizes onboard computer vision to autonomously recognize and track critical variables—including human casualties, vehicle counts, and hazardous materials—transforming raw visual feeds into structured data fields for rapid decision-making.
At the core of this innovation is the drone's ability to run analytics locally, calculating a dynamic risk score that is transmitted to web-based command centers. This real-time intelligence guides paramedics and firefighters in triaging scenes and deploying specialized resources with surgical precision. Beyond the immediate response, the platform facilitates comprehensive post-incident analysis by syncing edge data with cloud-based applications. This allows for the longitudinal review of major incidents, optimizing resource positioning and enhancing the common operating picture for complex, large-scale emergencies like flood relief or multi-vehicle collisions.
I was responsible for creating, planning & executing the concept, design, development, configuration and operation of the Emergency Response Drone. Through Qlik, I worked in partnership with the Ottawa Emergency Services and the University of Ottawa to bring this project to life. We demonstrated the system at Qlik Qonnections 2019 in Dallas, TX
About Todd
My research represents a formal inquiry into the friction between users and data. By architecting novel hardware and algorithms, these projects establish new benchmarks for how we visualize and interact with massive, multi-dimensional datasets.
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