New drone for scouting missions for the Bavarian Mountain Rescue Service
September 30, 2025
New drone for scouting missions for the Bavarian Mountain Rescue Service
Handover of the 'Trinity' drone to the Bavarian Mountain Rescue Service drone team
Various representatives from the Bavarian Mountain Rescue Service, the Bavarian Red Cross (BRK) and the Centre for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) were present at the official handover of the Trinity drone.
Image: 1/3, Credit:
BRK
Fixed-wing drone 'Trinity' in action
The Rhön-Spessart Mountain Rescue Service team will keep the new drone system, financed by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), ready for use and operate it during missions.
The Centre for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) attended the event and will collaborate with the research department of the Bavarian Red Cross regional office (BRK) and the Mountain Rescue Service to prepare and carry out future drone missions within research projects.
On 23 September 2025, the new 'Trinity' fixed-wing drone was handed over to the Bavarian Mountain Rescue Service drone team in Oberelsbach, Franconia. The Centre for Satellite-Based Crisis Information (ZKI) attended the event and will collaborate with the research department of the Bavarian Red Cross regional office (BRK) and the Mountain Rescue Service to prepare and carry out future drone missions within research projects.
For many years, there has been close cooperation between the BRK and the DLR/ZKI in researching new methods and providing support in the event of a disaster. In recent years, the use of drones and automated drone image analysis has played an increasingly important role. For example, drone flights took place in exercises in 2021 and 2022 under the joint leadership of the BRK and the DLR/ZKI as part of the BMBF project 'AIFER' (Artificial Intelligence for analysis and fusion of Earth Observation and internet data to support situational awareness in emergency response) in the Ahr Valley. Together with state and local associations of the German Red Cross (DRK) and representatives of the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK), various aspects of drone use for damage documentation in the event of a disaster were tested.
During the second exercise in 2022, the ZKI team used drone images captured on site to generate location-accurate orthophotos, and to automatically detect buildings and vehicles using AI methods. Using automated AI processes is an important step towards quickly deriving information from satellite, aerial and drone data for large areas. For instance, features such as buildings and vehicles, as well as changes such as building damage, can be identified in the image data. This newly recorded drone data also forms the basis for further developing automatic image analysis in the event of disasters. These innovative recording and analysis processes support rescue workers in assessing the situation, planning operations, and carrying out rescue activities on site.
The Rhön-Spessart Mountain Rescue Service team will keep the new drone system, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), ready for use and operate it during missions. In future joint research projects – for example, in the DLR project RESITEK (Resilient Technologies for Disaster Control) or in the planned demonstration in the Ahr Valley in 2026 – missions involving the Trinity drone could be coordinated and carried out jointly by the Mountain Rescue Service and the BRK as part of exercises. This way, insights for drone flights are gathered to support rescue workers on site.
