The German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Bavarian Red Cross (BRK) have teamed up to use uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) for civil protection and emergency response.
“Modern and effective civil protection strengthens the resilience of our society,” said Prof. Dr.-Ing. Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla, Chair of DLR’s Executive Board. “Together, we want to develop and test new technologies under realistic conditions to provide the best possible support to emergency services in complex situations. The exchange of knowledge between research, operational experience and public stakeholders is particularly valuable in this regard.”
A key focus of the collaboration is the development, testing, integration and modification of uncrewed and crewed ground and airborne systems. These systems are intended to support public safety authorities and organisations, as well as emergency response teams, in managing complex operational situations.
During the mountain forest fire on the Saurüsselkopf in May 2026, a new research UAS from BRK was deployed and detected burned areas and hidden hotspots. The live optical and thermal images could also be directly integrated into the digital situational awareness picture from the UAS.
Another key focus is the creation and continuous development of situational awareness reports for emergency response and disaster relief scenarios. Systems involved collect data from various sources, analyse it and make it available to command centres as needed.
DLR and BRK also intend to develop and demonstrate AI-supported decision-making systems and innovative methods for integrating and analysing geodata.
The partners will continue to collaborate on joint projects and plan exercises and demonstrations, such as in the field of satellite navigation where they are investigating how operational systems can be reliably operated even with limited or disrupted navigation.