Drone developer Brinc today showed off its newest drone, designed to help cops and others who care about public safety do their jobs from a safe distance. The new quadcopter is called Lemur 2 and is tooled up and ready to go into areas that otherwise would be too dangerous for humans.
The new drone builds on the learnings from the previous version and adds a stack of new features. The new drone has increased autonomous abilities, with onboard lidar sensors that can help create 3D maps, and a handy standby mode where the drone just sort of hangs out, ready to take action when the drone operator wants to take over. The autonomous hover feature doesn’t need GPS systems to hang out and can evade obstacles and objects.
The drone relies on a broad sensor array, including cameras, night-vision, thermal imaging, lidar sensors, a spotlight, night-vision lights, and microphones and speakers that afford operators the ability to do two-way comms. The data is transmitted to a custom controller using heavy encryption, and the new drone can use mesh networking between drones, effectively extending the range of each drone. The company claims that this extends the product’s ability to operate over larger areas, indoors, and underground.
“Today marks the next step on BRINC’s journey to advance drone technology in the service of public safety. Our mission at Brinc is to revolutionize public safety by leveraging technology to de-escalate dangerous situations,” Blake Resnick, CEO of Brinc, said in a statement to TechCrunch. “Each drone deployed to a dangerous situation is one less individual in harm’s way, and a potential life saved. The LEMUR 2 is the next era of first response technology that will undoubtedly make law enforcement and emergency services in our country more efficient and safer for all involved.”
Why, hello, Mr. Drone. Yes, you look very, very scary. Who’s a good drone? Who’s a good drone? Image Credits: Brinc
The company says it is heavily focused on manufacturing and sourcing within the U.S., with R&D and a lot of its manufacturing happening at its Seattle headquarters. This has given Brinc a competitive edge: It says it is National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) compliant and approved by the U.S. government for its products to be used by federal agencies and contractors.
“Throughout our journey, we have worked with past and present law enforcement and emergency services professionals to understand their unique challenges and enhance their ability to do difficult jobs safely with best-in-class technology,” Resnick says. “We look forward to building upon our success and continually pushing the boundaries of what BRINC can offer to benefit public safety.”
The company produced a “Cops”-style dramatization video that, among other things, shows it smashing its way through windows and open doors to illustrate its vision for how it hopes law enforcement will take the new drone to heart: