The interaction of video drone and ViRL

The ViRL acts as a hub and is not near the accident scene at the beginning of the operation (e.g. on the way there), so there is no direct visual contact with the emergency scene or the requested video drone.

The control of the video drone is in turn taken over by a drone pilot in a separate drone control centre, which is neither near ViRL nor the accident site. The operator and also the incident commander interacting with the ViRL has direct access to the drone's onboard camera as well as the camera control (gimbal).

While the drone is scouting the situation at the emergency scene, the video stream from the drone onboard camera(s) is sent via 5G service layer to the ViRL and thus to the incident commander.

Drone Control Centre

• Sending drone mission data to the ViRL (geographic coordinates, time).
• Planning, control and monitoring of drone flights
• Dynamic adaptation of drone flights i.e. adaptation of flight behaviour
• Compliance with legal, operational and technical requirements for drone flights

ViRL

• The ViRL has no direct influence on the control of the drones (however, the mission commander can communicate via Push To Talk with the drone pilot regarding the flight path)
• The ViRL receives temporal and geographical mission data (mission order) from the drone control centre.
• The ViRL operator can cause a change in the angle of view of the drone camera (control of the gimbal camera with a touch screen joystick or by tapping the map)
• The ViRL operator can initiate situational screenshots by the drone at the scene and manage them in a gallery related to the mission
• The ViRL operator receives the position data of the drone.
• The ViRL operator receives the livestream of the drone's cameras/sensors.
• The ViRL operator receives further perspectives from the operation site through car livestreams