Technology to Protect the Golden Time: The 911 FALCON Project

Hello, this is QUAD Drone Laboratory.
I’m Geunchan Lee, Senior Researcher at QUAD Drone Lab.

Starting with this post, we’ll be introducing our 911 FALCON Project—a continuous-operation system designed to keep search and initial response connected in real disaster scenarios. In this series, we’ll share the build process step by step, including design decisions, prototyping, field tests, and what we learn along the way.

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Starting Point: What ‘Real Incidents’ Revealed About ‘Search Drones‘

In September last year, there was an incident involving the late Senior Police Officer Jae-seok Lee of the Incheon Coast Guard. His position was identified via aerial search, but the drone had to return due to low battery, and the location was lost during the return window. He was later found deceased.

This case highlights a hard truth: in the field, a search drone can “find” a target—but it may not be able to stay and support the situation long enough to change the outcome.

Problem Definition: Limited Flight Time & Missing Initial Response

DJI search drones widely used in the field typically have a short operational time of around 25 minutes per battery. This makes it difficult to conduct long-duration or wide-area searches, and a search gap occurs whenever the drone must return for a battery change. More importantly, even after a victim is located, immediate initial response is often not available, which can lead to casualties. In other words, the core issue is not simply “insufficient drone performance,” but an operational structure where search and relief become disconnected.

Core Idea: A “Continuous-Operation Disaster Response System” Integrating Three Elements

We identified two key issues: limited flight time makes long-duration search difficult, and even after a target is found, there is often no immediate means to provide initial response on-site. To address this, we designed an operational structure where “search → initial response → relaunch” continues without interruption.

Specifically, we organized the system into three modules so that each has a clear role in the field:

• Drone (Search): Conducts aerial search and situational awareness; when needed, performs initial response by delivering relief supplies.
• Battery Swap Station (Continuous operation / Logistics): Automates battery replacement and manages relief supplies to reduce turnaround time.
• Autonomous Vehicle (Mobility): Moves the station closer to the scene to secure operational mobility and improve battery efficiency.

The purpose of this structure is simple. The drone focuses on search and awareness, the station reduces downtime through battery swapping, and the autonomous vehicle enables flexible operating locations—so that search and initial response can flow seamlessly.

Three Core Functions

The 911 FALCON system is designed to deliver the following three core functions:

1. Continuous-operation structure: automatic docking–based battery swapping
   By autonomously docking to the station and swapping batteries, the drone can repeatedly execute search missions.
2. Initial response: situation-tailored relief supply delivery
   After confirming a target, the system delivers (drops) the appropriate relief supplies to support immediate response.
3. Autonomous return & integration: cooperative operation among drone–rover–station
   By moving the rover near the site, the system optimizes the drone’s return point and improves overall operational efficiency.

Ultimately, these three functions help secure the rescue golden time through continuous search + immediate initial response.

Integrated Scenario: “Move to Site → Search → Relief → Return → Automatic Swap”

The overall system flow is as follows:

1. The autonomous vehicle moves to an area near the incident site.
2. The drone launches to search for and confirm the target.
3. If needed, the drone performs initial response by dropping relief supplies.
4. After the mission, the drone calculates a return route and returns (RTL).
5. The station automatically swaps the battery.
6. The drone relaunches immediately and repeats the search cycle.

Expected Impact: Extended Operation Time and Expanded Search Coverage

If the station carries up to 10 batteries and automatically swaps them each time the drone returns, we aim to extend total operation time from roughly 25 minutes per flight to up to 240 minutes (about 10×).

As a result, searchable coverage can also increase significantly, allowing a single deployment to cover a much wider disaster area.

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In this post, we summarized the background behind the launch of the 911 FALCON project and outlined the operational structure we designed to address two key field issues: limited flight time and the lack of immediate initial response. In the next post, we will present a system architecture diagram that captures the full configuration at a glance and explains each module’s role and integration flow. After that, we also plan to publish V-log content covering the build process and on-site testing.

Going forward, we will alternate between posts that clarify the overall system structure and content that documents the actual build process, and we will continue to share regular updates on the progress of 911 FALCON. Thank you.