BRINC Launches the LEMUR 2, the Next Generation of Its Public Safety Drone

Today BRINC announced the release of the LEMUR 2, the second iteration of its public safety drone.

BRINC launched the first version of the LEMUR almost exactly two years ago.

The company’s founder Blake Resnick started BRINC after the Mandalay Bay shooting in 2017. Resnick is from Las Vegas, NV, where the shooting took place, and he wanted to create technology that could help law enforcement work to prevent similar incidents in the future.

The LEMUR 1 | Credit: BRINC

At the time of the LEMUR’s launch it was one of the only drones made just for public safety work.

Here are the main features that made the LEMUR stand out:

• Two-way communication. Allows law enforcement to negotiate with suspects embedded during a hostage or active shooter situation as well as communicate with victims being held captive.
• Indoor flight. The LEMUR was made to fly indoors, allowing it to navigate the tight spaces you might find inside buildings where an active shooter could be present.
• Glass breaker. We mentioned this above—as far as we know, the LEMUR is the only drone that has a blade attached solely for the purpose of breaking through a window (shown above) to gain access to the interior of a building.

As you can see from these features, the LEMUR isn’t just made for public safety work.

It’s made for a very specific type of public safety work—entering buildings to deal with hostage and active shooter situations.

[Related read: BRINC Launches Global Rescue Network to Help with Crises throughout the World]

While the Skydio X2’s autonomy features make it helpful for tracking fleeing suspects, the LEMUR’s ability to fly indoors, provide two-way communication, and break through potential barriers to get inside make it designed to support missions that involve entering a building.

The LEMUR 2 . . . [is] designed to enable law enforcement and public safety professionals to survey areas too dangerous to send a person, assess a threat profile, and de-escalate conflict without putting individuals in harm’s way.

– BRINC press release

The LEMUR 2 takes the foundation established with the first LEMUR and upgrades it with cutting edge technology. And—of course—it’s made for public safety workers, with a special focus on law enforcement.

About the LEMUR 2

The LEMUR 2 takes the original capabilities of the platform and adds several new features as well as intelligent software to make it an even more useful tool for law enforcement work.

But the LEMUR 2 isn’t just for law enforcement—here are the primary use cases BRINC lists for its new drone:

• HazMat Response
• Search and Rescue
• Bomb/EOD Ops
• Barricades
• Negotiations
• Hostage Rescue
• De-escalation

The LEMUR 2 | Credit: BRINC

An Array of Sensors

The LEMUR 2 comes with a robust array of sensors, combining 10 unique systems for data collection made to support a variety of tactical ops.

These sensors include:

• Visual 4K
• Tracking camera
• Spotlight with a strobe
• Night vision with multiple night vision illuminators
• Thermal imaging with a FLIR thermal imager
• Two-way communications with a microphone and loudspeaker, as on the original LEMUR
• LiDAR

Credit: BRINC

Real-Time 3D maps with BRINC’s New Autonomy Engine

All of this data supports BRINC’s new Autonomy Engine, which is one of the biggest upgrades with the LEMUR 2.

The Autonomy Engine allows the drone to create a 3D map of its surroundings in real time. These maps can be used to provide crucial situational awareness during unfolding events, keeping law enforcement and other first responders safer in dangerous scenarios.

Credit: BRINC

Further, it provides an easy-to-interpret 2D floor plan in real time, providing immediate information to inform operations as they unfold.

The Engine also gives the drone 360° standby hover that doesn’t need GPS or light, as well as obstacle avoidance that dynamically adjusts the drone’s speed around objects.

Our mission at BRINC is to revolutionize public safety by leveraging technology to de-escalate dangerous situations. Each drone deployed to a dangerous situation is one less individual in harm’s way, and a potential life saved.

– Blake Resnick, CEO of BRINC

Security and Privacy

The LEMUR 2 is made with security and privacy in mind.

It supports local transmission of video and other data to a custom-made BRINC controller, encrypting data with AES-256 protocols.

The drone comes with an integrated 4G LTE-powered connection, letting it securely stream live video and 2D floors to multiple team members through BRINC’s new LiveOps web platform.

Credit: BRINC

The LEMUR 2 is also fully made in the U.S., with no components sourced from other countries. And it’s compliant with the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act).

This fact, combined with the drone’s made-in-the-U.S. bonafides, will make it attractive to public safety agencies and other state and local government entities (though the LEMUR 2 is not on the Blue UAS list, so it won’t be available for use by federal agencies).

Want to learn more about drones in public safety? Check out our in-depth guide to public safety drones.