Building public safety drones that save lives

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A cut out image of a seated person (Blake Resnick, founder & CEO, Brinc Drones) who appears to be wearing a mic

Drones are more than hobbyist quadcopters – they’re transforming public safety in high-risk scenarios such as police raids to disaster response.

Blake Resnick’s company Brinc Drones focuses on drones for such scenarios. The CEO started Brinc after the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, with the goal of providing technology to help first responders and potentially prevent similar tragedies. As Blake explains, “that turned into me basically looking up the phone number of Las Vegas’ SWAT team and cold calling them”.

“[The Lemur drone] is designed to get eyes and ears in dangerous places … instead of sending a dozen people holding assault weapons into a SWAT call out scenario.”

– Blake Resnick, founder & CEO, Brinc Drones

Following a prototype and several iterations, the Lemur drone was born. This drone, says Blake, is designed to “get eyes and ears in dangerous places … instead of sending a dozen people holding assault weapons into a SWAT call out scenario to physically arrest someone, which is incredibly dangerous for everyone”.

The Lemur can fly into buildings, map interior spaces using LiDAR sensors, avoid obstacles, and even communicate with suspects through a two-way audio system. This allows law enforcement to gather information and attempt to de-escalate potentially violent situations from a safe distance.

Erin Price-Wright, a partner with Index Ventures, invested in Brinc because of the huge potential for drones in public safety applications. Erin explained, “We had an idea that there was going to be a massive investment across the US in technology and products that helped de-escalate conflicts and reduce the risk of violence”.

Blake also thinks Brinc’s drones can also be used for disaster response, citing examples of deploying them after building collapses and earthquakes. With the clock ticking, they could reach trapped victims that would be impossible for human rescuers to access in time.

Navigating drones in these high-risk environments is extremely technically challenging; as the Brinc founder explains, the obstacles to success include poor visibility, collapsed concrete interfering with GPS, and the impact of dust and debris on LiDAR readings.

Despite the difficulties, Blake says Brinc has “built the most reliable drone in the world” for these types of situations.

Investor Erin Price-Wright saw Brinc’s potential to tackle hard problems with deep tech. Listen on to learn how these drones use AI to fly where humans can’t and help save lives.

Blake Resnick, founder and CEO of Brinc Drones, and Erin Price-Wright, partner with Index Ventures, were in conversation with Emil Protalinski, editor of FiToSci, on Auto/Tech & TalkRobot at Collision 2023.

Main image of Blake Resnick, founder and CEO of Brinc Drones, onstage at Collision 2023: Harry Murphy/Web Summit (CC BY 2.0)

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