UAS in Search and Rescue (SAR): LPCSAR’s Detection Tools
By Joshua Duttry
IT Director and UAS Specialist, La Plata County Search and Rescue
UAS in Search and Rescue (SAR) operations are changing how missions are executed in the backcountry. Time is one of our most precious resources. Every second counts when locating a lost or injured individual. At La Plata County Search and Rescue (LPCSAR), we’ve adopted and refined technologies to shrink the window between a 911 call and subject recovery.
Our most recent leap forward has come through the integration of drones, also known as Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) or Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAV), into SAR missions. These systems, combined with advanced detection software, transform raw aerial imagery into actionable intelligence. In this article, we’ll explore how LPCSAR employs UAS, how detection tools like Eagle Eyes Search, USR Loc8, and TexSAR ADIAT shape outcomes, and how we’re solving complex logistical and environmental challenges in the field.
High above the forest canopy, our UAS team brings unmatched eyes in the sky to every mission, day or night, rugged or remote.The UAS Reflex Task: Rapid Deployment from the IPP
As soon as a search begins, our team initiates a reflex task, launching a drone from the Initial Planning Point (IPP). This immediate deployment captures high-resolution overlapping photos while spiraling out from the IPP. These early aerial surveys provide invaluable visual data for quick analysis and informed tactical planning. We process the photos into CalTopo map layers, giving the Search Management Team real-time terrain visibility.
This rapid deployment helps us collect essential clues even before field teams hit the trail. UAS footage might reveal a subject’s location, abandoned gear, or a clue like disturbed vegetation. In mountainous terrain, it can also identify hazards and escape routes.
By integrating UAS early, we compress the timeline and often reduce the total number of field personnel required during the early operational periods.
Mapping the three dimensional flight path of a UAS during a search.
Image Detection Tools: How Eagle Eyes, Loc8, and TexSAR ADIAT Drive Success
Detection tools are one of the most transformative parts of UAS in SAR missions. Reviewing thousands of images and frames of video manually is slow and error-prone. Automation has allowed us to scale our capabilities across large terrain sections in minimal time.
Eagle Eyes Search: Real-Time and Post-Mission Analysis
Eagle Eyes is our primary detection tool, used heavily in real-time and post-mission review. It processes live video, post-flight footage, and still images. It’s effective during both real-time missions and post-flight reviews. The intuitive interface and quick learning curve mean our detection operators can become proficient in minimal time.
Detection results from Eagle Eyes during a live mission flight.In one high-profile mission, we utilized a Bell 505 helicopter to fly over a remote wilderness with multiple cameras mounted beneath, aimed at the forest floor. Eagle Eyes processed this feed faster than real time. Just three minutes into the detection scan, the software flagged a subject’s location, successfully identifying the individual where direct observation was unsuccessful. This confirmed the power of software detection in high-stakes SAR efforts.
We now deploy Eagle Eyes in multiple mission types:
– UAS flights covering tree lines, ridgelines, and high alpine fields
– Live helicopter video streaming from missions supporting evacuations
– Live and post-mission orthomosaic reviews in CalTopo, with flagged detections sent to field teams via GPS
The beauty of Eagle Eyes lies in its low training threshold and scalability. Detection operators, including non-pilots, can become proficient quickly, enabling larger teams to assist in faster reviews and detection.
Eagle Eyes has become integral to how we conduct UAS in Search and Rescue (SAR) tasks. Whether scanning forest edges or barren ridgelines, it has increased our effecency and operational confidence.
Loc8: Focused Color-Based Scanning
Loc8, created by the Unmanned Search and Rescue Initiative, provides another layer of detection. It excels in recognizing color patterns or clothing items. When we know the subject is wearing bright red, yellow, or orange, Loc8 can rapidly isolate candidate areas.
While it doesn’t run in real time like Eagle Eyes, it’s a powerful tool during daylight reviews, especially in low-vegetation environments. We often utilize Loc8 during post flight review of mission data.
TexSAR ADIAT: Offline Detection at Scale
TexSAR’s Automated Drone Image Analysis Tool (ADIAT) lets us process images in bulk. In remote regions where connectivity is limited or nonexistent, ADIAT offers crucial bulk scanning capabilities. Its ability to scan bulk folders of flight photso identify anomolous colors against natural backdrops.
This tool is particularly valuable after large-scale grid flights when reviewing hundreds or even thousands of images. Even if no subject is found, ADIAT helps clear terrain faster with fewer missed opportunities.
We use each tool based on terrain, urgency, and subject clues, they work together to support our strategy. Combined, they form a flexible system that supports our UAS in SAR strategy across terrain and timeframes.
Orthomosaic Mapping: Creating Search-Ready Aerial Overviews
Another vital component of our UAS in SAR workflow is the creation of orthomosaics: stitched, georeferenced aerial images that provide a unified and highly detailed map of the terrain. These high-resolution mosaics are generated from overlapping drone images captured during initial and follow-up flights.
Here is an example image showing a standard outdated map on the left and a new orthomosaic mapping layer displaying current terrain conditions in high resolution, on the right.We use orthomosaics in two primary ways:
1. Pre-Mission Planning:
Before field teams are deployed, orthomosaics give Incident Command a real-time look at current conditions, allowing for better route selection, hazard identification, and area prioritization. Orthomosaics show current terrain conditions, unlike outdated or obscured low resolution satellite images.
2. Clue and Subject Detection:
Orthomosaics processed post-flight are fed into detection tools like Eagle Eyes and TexSAR ADIAT, dramatically improving the clarity and coverage of the search area. Because the orthomosaic is a seamless representation, operators can zoom in on specific regions without losing spatial reference, making it easier to flag anomalies and distribute coordinates to ground teams via CalTopo.
We typically generate orthomosaics on-site using powerful laptops. For large-scale incidents, such as multi-day searches or wide-area hasty sweeps, this tool provides the capability to maintain situational awareness and improve our probability of detection (POD).
A Surface Area map layer created in minutes from 3 minutes of flight photgraphs.
A 3D Surface Scan created from the same 3 minutes of flight photos providing a different perspective on the topography of an area.
Separating Detection from Flight Operations: A Wireless Upgrade
Initially, our detection operators had to stand teathered to the UAS pilots. This made fieldwork cumbersome. Operators were exposed to weather, suffered screen glare, and often fought for visual access to the controller.
Our current wireless system solves that. Now, the detection operator can be up to 400 feet away from the pilot, maintaining a line-of-sight video feed. They can work inside a vehicle, under a shelter, or near a portable power station. The pilot focuses solely on safe navigation, while the operator focuses on image interpretation.
This setup streamlines UAS missions, especially in bad weather or high elevations. The system is also more scalable for multi-drone flights and extended missions.
Purpose-Built Tools for SAR
Behind every successful UAS deployment in SAR are tools designed not just with technology in mind, but with the mission at heart. LPCSAR has worked closely with Peter O’Connor, the founder of Eagle Eyes, to help shape tools that reflect the needs of real-world search operations.
This collaborative approach ensures tools evolve based on what SAR teams actually experience. That includes real-time visual feedback, faster detection pipelines, and post-mission analytics.
“At Eagle Eyes we focus on building tools that enable the integration of drones and other aerial imagery sources into a Search and Rescue operation. We’ve found that by enabling drone teams with computer vision, and integrating into SAR mapping tools like CalTopo, we can greatly increase the effectiveness of the drone as a tool both for search and for situational awareness. La Plata County SAR has been incredibly helpful in providing the feedback and real-world field testing required for our software to make an impact in the field.”
– Peter O’Connor, Founder of Eagle Eyes Search
This feedback loop, where developers build, SAR teams test, and both refine, helps shape tools that thrive in the harshest environments. It’s not just software; it’s mission-aligned technology with life-saving impact.
Live Video to Command: Closing the Loop with Incident Management
Collected data is only useful if it reaches Incident Command in a usable form. To streamline communication, LPCSAR developed a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for streaming live drone footage to our Command Post or EOC.
Live AI detections streamed to Incident Command from the field.We now stream raw and software enhanced video, including detections, via secure Starlink connections. This allows command to see the situation unfold in real time and update CalTopo maps, assign new tasks, or reposition field teams accordingly.
This integration was critical during our recent Wildfire Evacuation Exercise. Video from UAS units helped emergency managers track simulated evacuees, coordinate routes, and issue simulated alerts. Real-time video sharing has become an unexpected benifit of our UAS in SAR strategy.
Challenging Terrain, Better Tools: Our Use of Starlink
La Plata County’s dramatic elevation changes, from the bottom of our canyons to over 13,000 feet on alpine ridgelines, complicate communications. Cell towers are few and often obstructed. Traditional mobile data often fails when it’s needed most.
To solve this, we use battery-powered Starlink kits. These portable satellite internet units allow real-time communication, map updates, and streaming in even the most remote parts of our county. While our detection tools work offline, Starlink enhances coordination with partner agencies and supports real-time decision-making.
This capability has proven invaluable when conducting UAS SAR operations above tree line or deep inside canyon landscapes.
UAS provide different perspectives of dangerous areas like this avalanche debris path. This allows Search Management Teams to help keep both members of SAR and the public safe.
Recon for Rescue: Supporting Our Mission Through Innovation
Innovation doesn’t happen without support. Every component of our UAS in Search and Rescue program has been made possible through community donations, local agency partnerships, and volunteer commitment. To ensure our future success, we launched our Recon for Rescue initiative, a fundraising campaign dedicated to expanding aerial SAR capabilities.
Current goals include:
– Thermal imaging UAS for low-light and nighttime searches
– Long-range drones with collision-avoidance systems
– Spare parts, batteries, and repair kits
– VTOL UAS for prolonged deployments
– Dedicated detection workstations and hardware
By investing in these tools, we improve not only our mission success rates but also volunteer safety and efficiency. Each upgrade pays for itself in reduced search hours and faster subject recoveries.
Alternatively, you can support LPCSAR as a whole by donating directly and helping us continue our life-changing operations.
UAS SAR Future
The combination of aerial imagery, detection tools, and integrated communications has dramatically enhanced how we approach UAS in SAR missions. At LPCSAR, we’re not just flying drones, we’re pioneering a new operational model that leverages data, software, and volunteer dedication to save lives.
With the continued support of our community, we will expand these capabilities, strengthen our detection accuracy, and shorten the critical time between a distress call and a successful rescue. UAS in SAR is no longer experimental, it’s essential.
Want to Learn More?
If you’re a SAR team leader or agency manager and would like to collaborate, train, or discuss UAS implementation strategies, please reach out directly. We’re happy to share insights and lessons learned, but leave the details for direct conversation.
Let’s build a smarter, faster, more effective SAR community, together!
He has extensive experience supporting Search Management Team functions, including mission planning, operational coordination, and the integration of air and ground search resources. His work emphasizes practical, field-driven applications of UAS in search and rescue, informed by real-world mission support and ongoing training.
Joshua contributes across multiple SAR teams and disciplines, with a particular focus on bridging technology, aviation, and operational search management to support safe, effective outcomes in the field.