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Bi3 is collaborating with UCLan Lancashire Innovation Drone Zone to develop security drone solutions (LIDZ), with DAVANTIS Video Analytics, an unmanned autonomous vehicle (UAV) is used to verify intruder detection.
Drone technology is rapidly evolving, and it will soon be implemented as standard across UK industries to enhance services and improve technology offerings. This is also happening in the security market. Bi3 has collaborated with Lancashire Innovation Drone Zone (LIDZ) to investigate how drone technology can be used to enhance Bi3’s products, with a first look at drone applications and integration into security video analytics.
Bi3 operates under three primary philosophies: Innovation, Information, and Intelligence. As a result, we are constantly looking to develop and bring technology together to create bespoke solutions of the highest quality. We collaborate with a variety of platforms around the world to deliver on our strapline – Experts in Human, Vehicle and Object Detection. To meet the needs of the end user, Bi3 collaborates closely with clients and partners to develop bespoke solutions. Drone technology will add a new dimension to our product portfolio and create new opportunities for Bi3 to continue its growth and success.
LIDZ, which is housed in the new £35 million Engineering Innovation Centre (EIC) on the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) Campus, was established to bring together drone hardware and software specialists to support Lancashire project developments. The LIDZ team collaborates with local businesses to research, develop, and deploy new products across a variety of industries, and will help Lancashire businesses use drones to improve existing products and services.
First steps/developments: First Integration Concept
Bi3 has approached LIDZ, which has received funding from three major UK and European investment sources to develop and integrate drone technology into our security and business intelligence solutions. As the sole distributor of the DAVANTIS video analytics solution in the UK, Bi3 is a well-established video analytics provider. This is one of the market’s leading perimeter protection solutions, capable of being deployed in small, medium, and large-scale sites, and employing AI technology with a dual engine system working through CCTV to detect intruders illegally entering a zone, allowing for quick and decisive action to prevent theft and vandalism to a site. This product has been implemented in a diverse range of locations, including solar farms, and we are investigating how drone technology can be used to verify and track intruders on such sites.
This would imply that a drone would be automatically deployed from a home base/security office within a charging station, and with knowledge of an intruder’s GPS coordinates, the UAV would monitor the area and identify the threat for verification. This would provide more information to an on-site security team or an off-site security monitoring station, allowing for a faster response to the target. Additionally, this type of platform would allow for tracking of the target to areas where a CCTV tower cannot monitor or move with the target as they leave with the stolen items.
Future Potential with BI3: Second Integration Concept
Furthermore, alternate uses for health and safety as well as business intelligence are possible. For example, the Bi3 health and safety solutions allow for the monitoring of health and safety incidents in construction, transportation, and other industrial locations, a drone could be used for reaching difficult-to-see heights or depths of unmonitored areas where CCTV is not deployed, with the drones automatically deploying to verify a variety of different health and safety violations.
A further example is that a drone may be used to find and identify a worker who has slipped or fallen on a construction site and cannot be seen by co-workers or CCTV, or a drone may be used on a regular basis to ensure that hard hats and high visibility PPE equipment are worn correctly throughout a construction site.
Future Potential with BI3: Third Integration Concept
We will also investigate additional business intelligence functionality, such as regularly monitoring of an area’s occupancy and using drone technology to identify non-functioning solar panels on solar farms or housing construction sites through the addition of thermal sensors. This will bring operational efficiencies to solar farms reducing manual inspections and the associated costs of that. These are ideas that, with the assistance of LIDZ, we hope to investigate the potential implications, relevant legislation and technological requirements needed to deliver these solutions.
Contact Details
Business Insight 3
Preston Technology Centre, Marsh Ln, Preston PR1 8UQ
Phone: 01772 330 777
Email: Info@bi3.co.uk
To find out more about Lancashire Innovation Drone Zone…
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