The Odin Terminal is Now Flying
One of the first Odin Operators at the Boulder Emergency Squad getting trained on the Odin Terminal.
The Odin Terminal Is in the Field
This month, the Odin Terminal went to work. Boulder Emergency Squad now uses it on live operations. The Air Force's rescue coordinators put it through its paces. Their feedback is already in the product.
Here's what happened.
— Hunter
At a glance
First deployment: Boulder Emergency Squad. Four operators trained in three hours.
Pipeline: Contracts in final stages with two more Front Range public safety agencies.
Validation: The US Air Force Rescue Coordination Center tested the Terminal at the Rocky Mountain UAS Conference.
Shipped: 3D terrain-aware mission planning and secure live video sharing.
Odin Terminal Deployed for Operations
The Odin Terminal is now in operational use with the Boulder Emergency Squad (BES).
We trained four Odin Operators: two hours in the classroom and one hour on the flight line. After that, they were comfortable deploying the Terminal for overwatch.
This is our first field-deployed product. It takes on a hard problem: one pilot running a drone in the middle of a complex incident. Until now, that took a team of two, remote control center, or a reliable internet connection. The Odin Terminal supports the operator in the field, no matter the circumstances.
Two more agencies on the Front Range are close to signing for pilot deployments. Follow us on LinkedIn for those announcements in October.
Jamiel "Doc" Vadell of AFRCC putting the Odin Terminal through its paces at RMUAS Conference.
The Iteration Cycle
"Why did I just spend a week learning the old way when I could have just used this?" — Jamiel "Doc" Vadell, US Air Force Rescue Coordination Center.
The team that leads the US Air Force Rescue Coordination Center (AFRCC) came to Colorado to learn from the leaders in the field of public safety drone operations. What they learn here, they carry to agencies across the country.
I spent a day training them on complex incident operations flying the traditional way, with hands on the sticks, as part of their week of training. A few days later, at the Rocky Mountain UAS Conference (RMUAS), they tried the Odin Terminal. You can read Doc's verdict above.
Jamiel and his team bring decades of complex incident management experience. Their feedback went straight into our development plan.
Constantly acting on feedback while maintaining a grander vision defines our strategy. We are operators building for operators, and we test with the people who need this most. As autonomy gets more capable, it has to stay transparent and predictable. That is how operators come to trust it.
Want to shape where this goes? Fly a mission with us.
Acting on Feedback
After some testing in the mountains or close to buildings, many of our operators told us the same thing. They couldn't see how the vehicle would behave relative to the obstacles that the aircraft was supposed to avoid.
So we rebuilt the mission view. The latest release adds 3D visualization and terrain awareness. Operators see the flight path, the ground, and the buildings before the aircraft moves.
We also added low-latency, secure cloud video streaming. The whole incident team now sees what the aircraft sees with a touch of a button.
Next Up - One Operator Deploying a Fleet
Today it takes one pilot per drone. We are building toward one pilot per fleet next month.
The team is heads-down on multi-vehicle control. The first target is up to three aircraft at once, enabling constant overwatch on two locations. It is already flying in our simulation environment, with flight testing planned for early October.
Investors: Want to follow our progress more closely or meet the team? Reply to this email. It comes straight to me.
Agencies: See the terminal for yourself.
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