PANDEMIC DRONE

A “pandemic drone” to remotely monitor and detect people with infectious respiratory conditions is being developed by the University of South Australia (UniSA) in partnership with a Canadian company.

The drone will be fitted with a specialized sensor and computer vision system that can monitor temperature, heart and respiratory rates, as well as detect people sneezing and coughing in crowds, offices, airports, cruise ships, aged care homes and other places where groups of people may work or congregate.

The UniSA team led by Defense Chair of Sensor Systems Professor Javaan Chahl, who holds a joint appointment DST, will work with Draganfly Inc., a North American drone technology company, to immediately start integrating commercial, medical, and government customers.

Professor Chahl, working alongside Drs. Ali Al-Naji and Asanka Perera, achieved global recognition in 2017 when they demonstrated image-processing algorithms that could extract a human’s heart rate from drone video.