InDro and partners advance AED drone delivery research

InDro and partners advance AED drone delivery research

Aug 18, 2025 | Drones for good, In the media, InDro News

By Scott Simmie

 

When someone goes into cardiac arrest, literally every second counts.

The chances of survival drop by between seven and 10 per cent for each minute that passes between the event and resuscitation. So getting an Automated External Defibrillator to the scene as quickly as possible can, literally, mean the difference between life and death.

Back in 2018, InDro partnered with the County of Renfrew Paramedic Service and Dr. Sheldon Cheskes, Affiliate scientist, Evaluative Clinical Sciences, in the Schulich Heart Research Program at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, to carry out field research that compares the speed of delivering an AED via drone versus ground-based EMS. We have also worked with Peel Regional Paramedic Services on these trials.

Research was well underway, with multiple successful trials, when the pandemic hit and the project was paused. It has now resumed, and was recently featured in this news article.

Below: A video showing one of our test trials, where we lowered an AED kit at a precise location via winch

THE BENEFITS

 

The benefits are clear: The faster you can get an AED to a cardiac arrest victim, the more likely they are to survive. In multiple trials we worked with the County of Renfrew Paramedic Service to compare the speed of drone delivery with that of ground-based EMS. A simulated emergency call was placed, and the paramedics hit the road at speed. At the same time, we dispatched a drone carrying an AED.

The drone was faster – as it can head directly to the scene as the crow flies. This is particularly important in rural and remote settings, where roads only rarely present a direct route to the target destination.

In fact, Dr, Sheldon Cheskes and colleagues have been carrying out research to determine the feasibility of AED delivery by drone and have published papers in peer-reviewed journals.

In a 2020 research paper published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, they wrote about the results of six simulations in two rural areas. In one of those tests, the distance ground EMS had to travel was 20 kilometres, versus nine kilometres for the drone.

“During each flight, the AED drone arrived on scene before the ambulance, between 1.8 and 8.0 minutes faster,” they wrote. “This study suggests AED drone delivery is feasible, with the potential for improvements in response time during simulated sudden cardiac arrest scenarios.”

 

THE CHALLENGES

 

Getting the drone to the precise location is no problem. In fact, a 911 call contains the coordinates where the drone must be dispatched to – and that data can be automatically integrated into our flight planning software.

But because speed is of the essence, the research is also exploring how to most quickly get the AED from the drone into the hands of those awaiting the device on the ground. Is it faster to land the drone? Drop the device in a well-padded enclosure from a low height? Land and disarm the drone?

Then there’s the issue of instructing the Good Samaritans on the ground on how to effectively use the AED. In one of our trials, a cellphone was included with the AED. That cellphone was preset to a live video call with a First Responder. The moment someone opened the package, there was a professional on the other end who could offer instructions.

Below: Television coverage of when InDro first began exploring drone delivery of AED – all the way back in 2014

 

INDRO’S TAKE

 

As you just saw, we actually explored this use-case on Salt Spring Island long before the pilot project, with some tests back in 2014. So we could see the benefits of this use-case early on. Drone technology has improved immensely since then – meaning we can fly greater distances at greater speeds.

“We are immensely pleased to see this research get back underway after the pause forced by the pandemic,” says InDro Founder and CEO Philip Reece. “We’re also in a position now where we can explore using fixed-wing VTOL for greater speed and integrate more robust command and control protocols. Our ultimate, long-term vision includes the potential for a series of strategically placed docks in rural areas that contain drones and AEDs that can be automatically and autonomously dispatched the moment that 911 call comes in.”

We look forward to updating you after the next trial.

InDro clients Polytechnique Montréal featured on CNN with swarm research on ‘Mars’

InDro clients Polytechnique Montréal featured on CNN with swarm research on ‘Mars’

Oct 3, 2024 | Case Studies, In the media, Scott Simmie, Success Stories, Swarm Robotics

By Scott Simmie

There’s nothing quite as satisfying as seeing really good R&D in the field.

And when that research gets coverage from CNN? Well, that’s even better.

The news network just profiled some cutting-edge work being carried out by students at Polytechnique Montréal. Specifically, students who work in the MIST Lab – where that acronym stands for Making Innovative Space Technology.

We’ve profiled the work being carried out there before (you can find it here). Essentially, students are working on innovative robotics research they hope will one day prove useful on the moon and Mars.

“What we want to do is to explore environments including caves and surfaces on other planets or satellites using robotics,” explained Dr. Giovanni Beltrame (Ph.D.), a full professor at Polytechnique’s Departments of Computer Engineering and Software Engineering during our earlier interview. “Caves and lava tubes can be ideal places for settlement: They can be sealed and provide radiation shielding. There’s also a chance of finding water ice in them.”

The research certainly caught our attention – partly because the MIST Lab is an InDro client. We’ve supplied them with platforms and robots which they’ve enhanced with “backpacks” enabling swarm robotics research. Recently, they took a fleet of those connected robots to the Canadian Space Agency’s Mars Yard. The site has been built to replicate the surface on Mars – what’s known as a Planetary Analogue Terrain.

The mission? To have these interconnected robots autonomously map that surface in high-resolution.

Below: The Mars Yard. Photo by the Canadian Space Agency, followed by a pic of some of the robots InDro modified and supplied to Polytechnique Montréal

CSA Mars Yard
MIST

SWARM ROBOTICS

 

Fundamental to this research is deploying the robots in a swarm – where the robots carry out tasks autonomously while communicating with each other. In this experiment, they’re mapping that Planetary Analogue Terrain and compiling the data into a high-resolution digital twin.

“We absolutely believe that swarm robotics is the future of space exploration,” PhD student Riana Gagnon Souleiman told CNN. “It’s more efficient to have more robots and you’re less reliant on a single agent failing.”

We’ve written about swarm robotics before (and recently shipped a swarm to a US academic client). But this CNN story provides a full look at what the MIST Lab team has accomplished, modifying the robots with their own “backpack” for creating a local area network and meshing all that data.

In the video, which we’ll link to in a moment, you’ll see several of the 18 platforms InDro can supply. At the Mars Yard, you’ll see a Scout Mini, two Bunker Minis (seen in the photo above) and one Scout 2.0 – all working collaboratively.

The MIST Lab team has done an incredible job with modifying these robots and pulling off what we know is a very difficult mission. Kudos also to CNN for doing an exemplary job in explaining this story.

All set? You can watch the video here.

Below: Some of the MIST Lab researchers in a screen grab from the CNN story

YOW drone detection program featured in WINGS magazine

YOW drone detection program featured in WINGS magazine

May 18, 2022 | Drone Detection, In the media, InDro News, InDro Solutions, YOW

The Drone Detection Pilot Project being carried out at the Ottawa International Airport has received some traction in WINGS Magazine, Canada’s leading online and print publication about the aviation world.

InDro Robotics is one of the partners in the project at YOW, supplying hardware and software used to detect drones that might pose a threat to passenger, private and cargo aircraft using the airport. The program has gathered a lot of valuable data since it began in the fall of 2019.

But what it gathered during the anti-vaccine mandate protests in Ottawa in February of 2022 really raised some eyebrows. Drones were detected flying in a restricted flight zone over Parliament Hill and elsewhere in the downtown Ottawa core, with a spike during police operations to clear the protests.

A total of 27 different drones carried out 59 flights over a period of four days. Of those, 25 flights exceeded 400’ above ground level (Transport Canada’s limit, except in special circumstances). Eleven flights took place during hours of darkness – though that’s not a violation of regulations providing the drone is using lights that allow the pilot to maintain Visual Line of Sight and orientation.

Nonetheless, these flights all took place in restricted airspace. A small number were carried out by law enforcement, but the vast majority were not. As you’ll see in the following graphic, 15 unique drone IDs were detected, and 25 of the 59 flights were carried out above 400 feet (including one at 1583′ AGL).

Drone Detection

Wake-up call

 

Our initial story about this caused quite a stir, including this article in the Ottawa Citizen – along with attention from Canadian airports that do not currently have drone detection programs. And now, WINGS Magazine has picked it up.

The article appears in the May/June Digital Edition, which is also a print edition.

Drone detection

Drone detection, made simple

 

The system in place at YOW includes a micro-Doppler radar, capable of detecting the movement of small drone propellors at close range. It also features a sophisticated antennae array, which has been picking up flights as far as 40-50 kilometres from the airport.

The system is automated – and the data is banked. If a drone poses an immediate threat to a flight path, an alert is sounded and airport authorities can quickly respond.

You can read the story that appears in WINGS Magazine here. We’d also like to thank editor Jon Robinson for picking this up.

InDro’s take

 

We’ve pleased to be an integral part of the YOW Drone Detection Pilot Project. The results have been greater than we all anticipated, with highly granular data that has helped YOW educate drone pilots and also prepare an airport protocol for those rare but critical occasions when RPAS flights have the potential to impinge on the safety of crewed aircraft. The system provides enough advance warning that aircraft pilots can be given a heads-up and instructions to minimise any conflict with drones; the system is also capable of identifying the location of the RPAS pilot.

Monthly data is shared with program partners and has generated interest from other Canadian airports. The data detected during the Ottawa protests has also attracted the interest of those responsible for the safety of Parliament Hill and other critical buildings in the downtown Ottawa core.

For more information on how a drone detection system might benefit your airport or critical infrastructure, please don’t hesitate to contact us here.

InDro Robotics, Rogers make first drone / RPAS flight in Canada using 5G network

InDro Robotics, Rogers make first drone / RPAS flight in Canada using 5G network

May 6, 2021 | Featured, In the media, InDro News

InDro Robotics has flown two drone missions utilizing a Rogers 5G network – another important Canadian first. The flights took place at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in April, 2021. 

This milestone demonstrated potential future applications of 5G-enabled autonomous flights in Canada and around the world.

The two UAVs, both manufactured and operated by InDro Robotics, were standard quad models integrated with a 5G transmitter/receiver. The RPAS units used the Rogers 5G network at UBC to perform various tasks during test flights.

InDro flies drone missions over Rogers 5G network

The 5G network was installed by Rogers as part of a three-year, multimillion dollar partnership with UBC. The goal is to build a real-world 5G hub on campus that will be the blueprint for 5G innovation and research in Canada.

Drones generally communicate using standard radio frequencies. These have limited range and data bandwidth. Flying drones over the Rogers 5G network, InDro Robotics can share videos and even dense data with multiple users anywhere on the network at a much faster rate.

Rogers 5G Drone
Rogers 5G Drone

The InDro Robotics mission flying drones over 5G networks

The drone flights, carried out by InDro Robotics over a Rogers 5G network, were highly successful. The drones completed tasks such as picking up and dropping off a box containing first-aid medical supplies from one location to another. 

InDro Robotics President and CEO, Philip Reece, said the ability to fly utilizing a 5G network opens up more opportunities for new uses for UAV technology, such as deployment during natural disasters and critical incidents. The use of 5G allows sharing data with multiple users. More importantly, it enables the operation of UAVs from off-site command centres that could be hundreds or thousands of kilometres away from the mission. 

“Two greatly anticipated technologies that have developed over the past years are commercial drones and 5G networks. On their own each have an amazing impact on many industries. Together, they do so much more. We now have drones flying over public and private 5G networks that can collect and send data into the cloud for AI processing and back to offsite command centres with near-zero latency. This enables drones to operate smarter and safer, sharing critical data with those that need it instantly. This helps keep First Responders out of harm’s way, and allows engineers to inspect infrastructure faster and more efficiently. It also helps keep airspace safe, and so much more,” said Reece.

“We are proud to be leading the industry in deploying drones over cellular networks in North America.”