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Drones are an important part of the emergency services capability so when there was an opportunity to get up close to the kit, I found myself at the offices of Evolve Dynamics near Guildford and spoke to its founder, Mike Dewhirst to find out what innovation looks like for this UK firm.
In 2024, the previous government announced £230m funding to boost the use of drone capability in policing. The UKRI Future Flight programme is driving drone technology development in all sectors and Innovate UK is providing grants to test new ideas and use cases. It is a good time to be drone supplier with this level of interest.
Evolve Dynamics has been around for just shy of ten years and Gwent Police was its first blue light customer, having bought drones from them six years ago. Since then they have expanded into other forces such as Surrey, as well as working with search and rescue organisations.
The use case for drones is clear: situational awareness in the air. It is part of the toolkit for not just police but fire and rescue services when responding to incidents.
Cost is a big factor and the investment may be prohibitive to many emergency services. The Evolve Dynamics SKY MANTIS 2 drone costs around £38k for the base model before introducing additional functionality. And in response to the budget constraints faced by the blue lights, the firm has recently launched a new drone called the Nano which is extremely light at 249g, smaller and cheaper at sub £10k.
Emergency services will of course be looking for the right tool for the job and investing in drones must be part of a strategy for operational efficiency as well as effectiveness. Having a small drone in the boot of every response car isn’t going to be the answer purely on cost terms, but a strategically located capability across a force area for example seems sensible and even more so if it’s an asset available to more than one emergency service in a geographical space.
“Innovation in the drone space is constant,” says Mike. He reels off a list that includes making drones quieter through improvements with the propellers, “everyone wants them quieter,” he adds. At a recent event hosted by Evolve Dynamics, drone pilots from both constabulary and national agencies were impressed with the quietness of the SKY MANTIS 2, says Dewhirst who adds that this makes it ideal for surveillance operations.
All drone manufacturers want to make drones fly for longer, equip them with better cameras and make them safer. Mike says that it’s important to make drones more aware of their environment. He explains: “they need to know when they might crash into another drone, or a tree or building.” It makes sense and if there are more drones in the air space, perhaps at a major incident, the protocols on the ground need to be clear.
Norfolk Constabulary is carrying out trials of ‘drones as first responders’ as part of a National Police Chiefs’ Council drone programme. This means that drones can be strategically located on buildings and launched remotely to gather information that is then sent back to a control room to support decision making about an incident. Mike says that Evolve Dynamics is also developing DFR capability and highlights how this has the potential to avoid false call outs and improve efficiency as a result.
“One of the limiting factors for drone flight time is the fuel source. Batteries are not extremely efficient and they are heavy.”
Power is another issue that Mike says is ripe for improvement. This firm is working with innovative battery manufacturers to achieve marginal gains that when combined with all the other improvements, means, according to Mike, “that you will eventually end up with a better drone that can fly for hours.”
Working with hundreds of suppliers over many years, he has developed a network that together drives drone innovation.
“We have developed software that has hundreds of motors, batteries and propellers’ test data listed in a database. You tell it what you want from the drone, how long you want it to fly for, what you want it to carry and for how long and it will tell you the optimum combination of motor, battery and propeller to use to achieve that goal.”
Evolve Dynamics is doing the right thing by regularly talking to the emergency services, inviting them to view their drones and talk about the problems they are trying to solve so that the technology can evolve to meet their needs but at a price they can afford.
For more information about UK policing’ use of drones, read my interview with National Police Chiefs’ Council drone lead, Stuart Lawless, who spoke to me earlier in 2024 about why a consistent approach and fearless innovation were key to the successful use of drones in policing.
