Land Rover Project Hero Search And Rescue Vehicle With Roof-Mounted Drone Is Being Tested With The Austrian Red Cross

Land Rover revealed Tuesday a special version of its Discovery SUV called Project Hero at the Geneva Motor Show. The vehicle is particularly designed for search and rescue operations and is currently deployed with the Austrian Red Cross.

One of the most important features of Project Hero is a roof-mounted quadcopter drone that sits atop the vehicle and takes off whenever needed, even if the vehicle is moving. The drone can be operated from inside the car and is magnetically locked in place. It is released by using the car’s dashboard systems. The primary objective of the drone is to assist in search and rescue operations and to cover a terrain that would potentially not be navigable by the vehicle. The inclusion of a drone atop the vehicle is expected to extend the reach of rescue worker beyond their line of sight from the car and can allow them to respond quickly on foot rather than wasting time trying to navigate via car.

The car, designed by the Jaguar Land Rover Special Vehicle Operations unit, is part of Land Rover’s deal with Red Cross. The cars are expected to deploy worldwide wherever Red Cross operates. The company and the organization have been working together for 63 years, according to Tech Crunch.

The drone, which has been specially designed for Project Hero, has the ability to broadcast live footage back to the vehicle so that rescue crew can respond in the nick of time if needed. It will provide them with a drone camera view of survivors in case of accidents and disasters and also help notify changes to the landscape, open pathways, etc. in case of natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes.

The Land Rover designed for Project Hero also comes with a sliding floor panel as well as LED lighting, power supply points and mounting points for gear.

The car is currently deployed at the Red Cross training center in Erzberg, Austria, overseeing mountain-based mining operations and will be tested there for 12 months starting June 2017, accompanied by the drone-running simulated operations mimicking real-life search and rescue operations.