Lone Star UAS Center Drones Assist in Texas Flood Efforts
Photo: LSUASC.
A three-person team from the Lone Star Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center of Excellence and Innovation at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi is headed to Wimberley, Texas, so their drones can take low-altitude research flights over the devastating flooding in the region.
The mission will fly unmanned aircraft around 200 feet high, taking real-time aerial searches for missing people, livestock and vehicles, according to Jerry Hendrix, chief engineer for the center, which houses one of the Federal Aviation Administration’s six approved UAS test sites.
The team will fly an AscTec Falcon 8 from HURVData, located in Austin, Texas, a senseFly eBee, and a DJI Phantom.
“We will survey land areas, including bridge and critical infrastructure and roadways,” he says. “It will be a general aerial assessment of damage due to storm and flooding.”
“This new authorization gives us a great deal of latitude in assisting state agencies as they test UAS capabilities in fulfilling their statutory missions,” says Dr. Luis Cifuentes, vice president for research, commercialization, and outreach at A&M Corpus Christi and interim executive director of LSUASC. “Our test site program has been designed by the FAA to support government agencies and private sector companies as they safely integrate UAS into their operations.”
More than 400 homes in the town have been destroyed, and four people have died in the county that houses Wimberley.
