Episode 194: Safety in the Skies: Inside the Texas Public Safety Robotics Summit with Preston Culver

Episode notes

Why attend the Texas Public Safety Robotics Summit?

Hello Smart Firefighting Community!

Welcome to another episode of covering real world innovations via interviews with fire service and technology industry experts that empower YOU to develop your very own Smart Firefighting strategy!

We're taking a quick pause from our 16 part FRST Challenge Mini Series to share how attending the Texas Public Safety Robotics Summit (March 4-7, 2024) can help you stay updated on the latest technology, training methods, and best practices in public safety robotics.

In this episode:

Why are standard test methods crucial in the drone industry?

How does the Texas Public Safety Robotics Summit provide a platform for public safety professionals to learn, share knowledge, and network with industry experts?

Why is sharing knowledge and resources essential for the advancement of the industry and the improvement of public safety operations?

Find out from Preston Culver - an Adjunct Associate Research Scientist at Johns Hopkins University and a Summit organizer.

Former firefighter, lead drone pilot & videographer for the Austin Fire Department, Preston now works on the Standard Test Methods Response Robot Capabilities project at NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) via an adjunct research position at Johns Hopkins University. This project focuses on standardizing the test measures utilized in testing both pilots & technologies, geared specifically for emergency response.

Preston is also one of the primary orchestrators of the annual Texas Public Safety Robotics Summit . From content creation to marketing to being the MC at the event, Preston is involved in almost every aspect of the 4-day drone summit that continues to be an industry favorite each year.

So click play now to hear what he has to share, and register for the summit here!

Head to www.smartfirefighting.com to discover how SFF accelerates innovation for emergency responders, to find out when our next event is, or review our curated resources!

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Chapters

1. 0:00 Intro
2. 0:51 Preston Culver returns
3. 1:53 Two years of work with NIST
4. 4:04 Why standard test methods matter
5. 8:16 Barrel rolls and drone basics
6. 10:35 Making the most of limited dollars
7. 11:45 The fire truck driver example
8. 16:01 The evolution of drones in public safety
9. 17:15 Air, ground and water robots
10. 22:24 Why attend the summit
11. 26:31 Hogs at the ranch
12. 27:50 The agenda and the website
13. 28:16 A four-day summit
14. 31:17 A disaster airspace exercise
15. 32:43 Who will be there
16. 34:38 Super Bowl calls
17. 35:38 Final thoughts
18. 38:28 Wrap up
19. 40:13 Outro

Questions answered in this episode

What work is Preston Culver doing with NIST?

Preston Culver works on standard test method projects for drones and pilot proficiency through a grant from Johns Hopkins University. He helps standardize how drones are tested and how pilots are trained, providing objective ways to evaluate both equipment and operator skills.

Hear it at 1:53

Why are standardized drone test methods important for public safety?

Preston Culver says there is currently no standard test method for testing new drone products. Vendors make claims about zoom, megapixels, and other features, but NIST provides targets and a standard flight lane so agencies can objectively compare aircraft under the same conditions and make better procurement decisions with limited funding.

Hear it at 4:04

What are the five levels of the NIST aerial test?

Preston Culver explains that level one is a basic safety check ride. Level two adds five flight paths covering basic public safety moves. Level three is where public safety should aim, with functional moves like parallel parking for cars. Levels four and five increase obstacles and realism for tactical situations and confined environments.

Hear it at 8:44

What is the Texas Public Safety Robotics Summit?

Preston Culver describes it as a four day event at a 1,300 acre ranch outside Austin that combines traditional vendor exhibitions with hands on training in realistic environments. It includes presentations, training sessions, and opportunities to fly your own drone or test the latest equipment on NIST test lanes.

Hear it at 17:15

Who should attend the Texas Public Safety Robotics Summit?

Preston Culver says there is something for everyone, from people who have never flown a drone to seasoned pilots. Leadership, purchasing staff, and anyone involved in starting or running a drone program will benefit. He especially challenges people who do not see the value, saying they will learn things they had not thought of.

Hear it at 23:24

Transcript

Machine transcript of the published audio. Names may be misspelled and some sections are missing.

Ep 194 transcript

Safety in the Skies: Inside the Texas Public Safety Robotics Summit with Preston Culver

Speakers: Kevin Sofen, Preston Culver

Source: Whisper medium.en machine transcription of the published Podbean audio (no original transcript found in Drive), lightly cleaned. Speakers were separated by voice clustering and then checked and assigned by hand at every speaker change. Gaps where the model returned no usable text are marked [inaudible m:ss].

[0:00] Kevin Sofen: Welcome to the Smart Firefighting Podcast, where we cover technology and change management in public safety. Today, we're joined with Preston Culver, who discusses his work with NIST around standard test method projects for drones and the importance of these methods in the industry. Preston and I highlight the Texas Public Safety Robotics Summit, which provides an opportunity for public safety professionals to learn and share knowledge about practical robotic technology and usage. The summit includes presentations, training sessions, and hands-on demonstrations for many practitioners in the public safety industry. This really is the premiere event around robotics technology, and you don't want to miss it. Make sure to check out the website in the show notes for more information, and I hope to see you all in Burnet, Texas, March 4th to 7th. Preston Culver, my man, welcome back to the Smart Firefighting Podcast.

[0:54] Preston Culver: Thanks for having me, bud.

[0:56] Kevin Sofen: There's so many things we talk about from the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers to I think the last time you were on the pod, I don't even think you had kids.

[1:05] Preston Culver: I think I had one, now I have two. Yeah, exponentially more work.

[1:09] Kevin Sofen: It's still man-to-man coverage, right?

[1:11] Preston Culver: Yeah, but somehow we're constantly losing. I don't know how two small children put two adults through the ringer like they do, but they're good at it.

[1:20] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, I don't have kids myself. I have, I think, 16 nieces and nephews, and I enjoy being an uncle, maybe a father someday. I do have a dog that keeps me pretty busy and manages to mess up my apartment quite a bit. But yeah, we do it because we love it, right? Yep. So what's happened since we last talked? I know you've kind of been seen as the tip of the spear with all things Texas Robotics Show, which I want to get into, but tell me a little bit about a 30,000 foot view pressing from the all things robotics and work life of things that you've been dabbling in, particularly with some of the work you've done with NIST.

[1:53] Preston Culver: Yeah, so a lot has happened since I believe we spoke two years ago for the 2022 show. And unfortunately, right after that, I was about to have to jump ship from the industry and just go find a paycheck. And I kind of announced that at the end of the summit and was lucky enough to catch some ears with NIST and the response robotics group there. And so I have been brought on full time to work on the standard test methods projects that Adam Jakeoff and NIST are running. So I'm not a federal employee. I did not work for NIST, but it is through a grant through Johns Hopkins university that allows former first responders and grad students and other folks to help in this effort. So my LinkedIn profile looks really cool. My title is kind of silly, but really what it is just a former firefighter, former drone pilot who now gets to work on kind of the overall mission of standardizing the test methods that we test these tools against and then also pilot proficiency. So how we're training our pilots and what that looks like. So I've been full speed with that group since pretty much after that 2022 show.

[3:08] Kevin Sofen: That's awesome. And I mean, I've been, I think Mike Massarino, shout out who deserves multiple shout outs, first introduced us and then I've been following a lot of stuff you've been doing and Mike has taught me a lot about drones, but from some of the little like contraptions that are built to sort of test and train on it during some of the hot classes to some of the different built environments that you're using to actually, you know, see if these devices are actually doing what they're doing, as well as then the proficiency of how we're making pilots, ensuring they're capable of doing what we think they can do and the whole process of FAA certification. There's all these little nuances. For me, I'm an advocate of drones. I'm a practitioner of drones, but by no means am I an expert of drones. But for people interested in drones, why is the work you're doing relevant to the layman drone person, and why is it helpful to the ultimate goal of making public safety better, faster, safer with their usage of drones?

[4:04] Preston Culver: Sure, so it fills a couple of voids right now in the industry that are glaring and obvious for folks that have been flying either recreationally or for public safety, but right now the environment is that if you want to fly a drone as a civilian, you can go buy one from Costco and fly around your property or you can follow certain rules and fly as a hobbyist. You don't have to have any license, you're just you know following rules and flying under 400 feet and you know keeping it to not making money off of it and you're not using it on emergency scenes then you can take it up a notch and make it a business and get your part 107 license or a lot of public safety groups require that for their pilots and that's just an FAA class that you have to take and then get a certification but honestly you can watch youtube university for a weekend and go knock that test out so while it While it is vitally important and it's a starting place, that's really it. So as soon as you take that test, you are blessed to fly under those rules on emergency scenes in the national airspace. And so one thing that this project does is it's kind of the practical application component of what could be a mandated Part 107 accompaniment to actually go fly and show your skills. So like, you know, back in the day when you take your driving test and you would take all the informational stuff and then you had to sit with the sheriff and drive around town and show him that you know how to park and you know how to stop at lights and you know how to, you know, maybe do some more advanced moves like parallel parking or whatever. That's what this NIST test measures can function as is, okay, so you learned the stuff, now come show us, you know, what you know. So just in a general term, it could fill that void that is an obvious need right now. The FAA has still not set that, so there isn't anything currently, but it is being adopted by first responder groups as their SOP, SOG for their group. So they do have NIST components in their training that their pilots have to meet before they can join the team. So that's one thing. The second thing is, right now, there is no standard test method for testing new products. So say a new aircraft comes out and it claims that it can zoom in X amount of times, optical and X amount of times, digital. How do we really know that? They say they're 48 megapixels, but is it really 48 megapixels, right? And everyone claims that they're shooting 48 megapixels right now on drones, but if we line them all up and look at the same targets, there's probably some difference there. So NIST provides those targets. NIST provides a standard flight lane that we build and set up the same way every time. And you can essentially, there are variables that change and we know that. And so you can mark variables on the score sheet, whether it's daytime, nighttime, high wind, low wind, whether you're facing the aircraft or you're turned away from the aircraft or representing beyond visual line of sight flight. So all those variables can be marked on the score sheet but then at the end of the day you're collecting data and whatever the data tells you know you can run multiple aircraft through the exact same tests under the same variables and essentially get back information on which ones do things well which ones maybe need a little work and so NIST or the NIST test can spit out pie charts can spit out splatter charts and really show you which where you should buy or where you should spend your money, so it helps in procurement tremendously. So one thing is funding is hard for these groups, and so the last thing we want is for them to finally secure funding, and then they make the wrong purchase, because they were sold something from the vendor, a shiny toy that will do X, Y, and Z, and really it only does X, and it tries to do Y, and Z's coming out on the next firmware update, right? That's the story that we're always told. And so NIST provides a objective, quantitative evaluation of both the robotic system and then eventually the pilots as you start incorporating it into your training.

[8:16] Kevin Sofen: I love that. And I got to ask, so what's the equivalent of a parallel parking effort to flying a drone pilot? Is it like maybe doing a barrel roll or what is that?

[8:26] Preston Culver: Yeah, the blind barrel roll, no. That's more into the FPV world.

[8:31] Kevin Sofen: Can you do barrel rolls with drones?

[8:34] Preston Culver: If you unlock like the new Avatos and FPVs, yeah, that's kind of in the drone racing world. Those are the true drone pilots, but.

[8:42] Kevin Sofen: But probably frowned upon amongst public safety.

[8:44] Preston Culver: Public safety, yeah, we're typically not barrel rolling or flipping into the buildings, but I have seen it done. I definitely have seen it done. But the NIST aerial test measures in the way that it is now and kind of the final version that Adam and the team has gotten to are essentially five levels. And it mimics kind of skiing. if anyone's familiar with the skiing nomenclature imagery, green, blue, and black, green being beginner. So there's levels one through three that are the entryway to the NIST test measures. Level one is kind of a check ride, would be the safety flight that could accompany a Part 107. It's just two easy flight paths that would be the real basics if you were driving a car. Level two is five flight paths. So we kind of reverse engineered public safety operations And we kind of broke it down into these are basic moves that you'll be performing on most emergency scenes. And so just alignment only. So we just tell the pilot where to go. And then they look into the buckets, look at targets, and then we check off that they went there. And then level three is really where public safety should strive for. And that's starting to get into some of those moves like parallel parking, right? That's functional moves that you will do in your job or life that will, you know, it will age you in being better at. So just like in the parallel parking example there are plenty of moves like that in the drone world that you know one of the parallel parking thing I like because it's like you need to know how to do it but you also don't want to like embarrass yourself in front of that cafe you know of young people that are watching you take five times to get the car in and then have your spouse say get out of the car I can do it better you know that's what we're that's what we're trying to avoid piloting these drones is you know making sure you look professional that you're you're good and you're safe and that you're also relevant to the scene and not becoming a problem.

[10:35] Kevin Sofen: Well, I love hearing all that because, I mean, one, it's so important when this is doing because I think from a public safety perspective, our dollars are limited and we need to make them go far and we can't risk buying it on something that's not going to do what the objective is. But then even further to what you were talking about, drones are no longer just perceived as toys. They're not like these little things that are sort of nice to have. There are required tools that need to be on scene to help public safety officials do their job better. And it's just kind of like driving a fire truck, in a sense, where you need to be trained, you need to be proficient, you need to retrain, you need to be in the know. I mean, I know in the fire truck realm, like with FDSOA, I mean, there are so many training requirements and training expectations on what first responders need to do and how to drive a truck. And in essence, I mean, drones really are no different. They're just this new element and this new tool and the toolshed that help first responders do what they do. And I also know the New Steel Lab, they're kind of like a testing outlet via DHS. And they ultimately test products to see, does it do what it says it does? So it's comforting to know that NIST, along with you, are leading the charge on that.

[11:45] Preston Culver: Yeah. So I love the fire example. Obviously, my background is in the fire service. So that's kind of how I still see this. But it's exactly like your fire truck example, right? So when I came through the Austin Fire Department, there were already horses in place for firefighters, the entry level position, who rides on the back of the fire engine, to become a driver. So that's one position higher, and that's the person obviously driving the fire truck. So it used to be that you studied your maps, and you studied your territory, and you memorized where hydrants were, and you memorized walk numbers and where streets started and where streets stopped. And then you memorized and then you learned the engine and you took tilted the cab up and you really got to know, you know, all the fluids and what to check. And you just became a master of the fire engine. And then you would drive around your chief around your first two territory. And he would tell you, hey, you've got a structure fire at the corner of East and Main Street. What's the fastest way from right here to get there? And you would take them and they'd say, okay, good job. Now back into that parking spot and turn around in this narrow, you know, alleyway. So you do that. Check. Okay. And then you get back to the station and he'd say, all right, good. You know, Kevin, you didn't hit anything. You knew how to turn on the lights. You knew where the air horn was. You're good to drive. And he'd bless you as a relief driver, right? And so then he'd tell everyone, hey, Kevin can be a driver. So if we're short a driver, now Kevin can ride up as we called it and ride one class higher and drive that shift. Because then they would pay overtime to the firefighters. They always want to pay overtime to the firefighters and then make everyone ride one class higher. And so it used to just be, hey, if your chief said you're good, you're good. And you might not really be good. You might not know how to pump the proper PSI and the proper pressure at a fire. But that one chief let you drive around and you were good. And then you get a first call and you wreck flowing through a red light because you didn't stop because your chief forgot to mention that even though it's a red light, you should still stop. And so now there's an investigation. All your training records are pulled, right? Like, you see where I'm going. And the legal comes and says, okay, well, where's this person? Where's Kevin's training files? And chief says, Oh, I don't have any. I drove him around. He was good. That model is dated and has many problems that we can, you know, obviously see. So, they started a curriculum for that project. So, if you wanted to be a firefighter who could drive a fire truck. You had to, in our class, learn all this stuff about trucks, go down to training, practice these seven skills, serpentine, alley dock, you know, measure to a certain, you know, width and length. You had to go a certain speed and stop without hitting something. These different fundamentals of fire truck driving, and then you pass that, and then you had to go get your class B license with the state. So you had to go drive a fire truck for a state driver's license person and then get approved to get a Class B license, right? So there was the official component, the stuff for the department, and then like you're saying, all the things that are required to learn to drive the fire truck. And so that's essentially what we're trying to implement for public safety drone operations is, okay, so you got your Part 107 and what's between that and you flying on an emergency scene? There should be more than just, hey, my boss took me out or my program manager took me out, I put the drone up and down and flew around the building and I didn't crash, so now I'm good. That's essentially how it used to be, and then we're trying to kind of catch it up to that fire truck example of, no, you should learn these five basic skills, you should learn X, Y, and Z, and then as you go into more tactical situations and confined environments, interior flight, we have levels four and five that really amp up the obstacles, what we ask of the pilots and then the environment is smaller and tighter and more realistic for some of the law enforcement groups and public safety. So it really kind of makes that example, I mean that's the perfect example because right now there is no documentation of training. There is no standard for what you have to do to be a drone pilot on a emergency scene. When heaven forbid things go wrong and then we're gonna be in a bad place. So trying to get ahead of that problem.

[16:01] Kevin Sofen: This is the evolution of drones within public safety. And just memorizing a YouTube channel and passing your 107 is a good start, but it's not good enough. And it does come down to the practical implementation, as well as, granted, we all want everything to go well, but sometimes stuff go wrong. And we've got to make sure that you've done the training and that we've got the records. And this is part of the evolution of drones within public safety. And what you're doing is leading the charge. And I think what I love most about what we've talked about is the practical usage, the practical implementation. And frankly, this kind of, I think, ties into the Texas robotic show. I mean, there's so many different types of water, land, aerial robotic platforms that can be used for X, Y, and Z applications. And then there's these different software platforms that you can use to stream, to process. There's these different cameras and sensors. But for most people, it's sort of like, well, where do I start? What does that mean? How do I use this? And then there's some of the people that are really pushing the envelope. Who, what, when, where, why Texas Robotics Show? And how is it really helping drive the practical, ethical, responsible usage of robotics and public safety?

[17:15] Preston Culver: Sure, so you mentioned the air, ground, and water, and I forgot to lead with that, but this NIST project, I come, I'm a drone pilot, and so I lean on the drone side, but this project started with ground robots back in the 90s, DoD and Bomb Squad stuff. So it kind of had its beginning in the ground side, and then obviously drone technology has really taken off, and then the water group is still hanging on. They're just the least utilized and kind of least popular of the three, but we still have underwater test measures and the full suite to test the water ROVs but yeah taking that to Texas is in addition to the five levels of the drone test measures that I talked about just the blocking and tackling is these five moves but then we embed them into scenarios and so the next kind of crawl walk run of the NIST suite is you take the same targets and the same concepts and then you start putting them in real life environments. And so leading us to the event coming up in the beginning of March, the Texas Public Safety Robotics Summit, just outside of Austin, Texas, at a place called Reveille Peak Ranch in Burnett, Texas. It's the fourth year we've done this kind of rendition of it, but it is essentially a combo show of your traditional vendors, There's exhibition tables, you know, the latest and greatest tech, plus an austere environment. So it's a 1300 acre privately owned ranch that we have full access to, and it has just a swath of different environments to test things in. So there is a 70 foot rappelling tower. There is downhill biking on, it's like a granite kind of rock surface out there. So it's a really unique topographical environment, if that's the right word. There are like miles of trails, it's all wooded. There's a lake, there's a clearwater quarry, there's a comms denied ravine where nothing gets down there. And so you can really test some of the kind of all the comms go down, what do we do, how do we talk to each other, host natural disaster environments can be recreated really easily there. They also have, they also now have a silvis mesh network. So forever the issue was, okay, that's great, but we can't get connectivity out here. So a lot of this stuff relies on connectivity. But now they have that silvis mesh network rocking and rolling out there. So it really provides an austere, realistic environment to both just get this community together from law enforcement, fire, EMS, county, there will be some state groups, military groups, academia, there's a lot of... players in this kind of ecosystem. But it's just the time, four days, early spring in Texas, the weather should be gorgeous. We get together, see the latest from all the big vendors. We'll have some new instructors coming in from new departments and new agencies to lead some training. But you get everything from, hey, I've never flown a drone, so can I just go up and down and left and right and not crash? And then the next thing you know, we'll be throwing a Nevada headset on you and you'll be taking it through our obstacle course with a proctor. So just having positive outcomes is kind of our goal. And then good reps. That's really what we're focused on. It's not a training. You don't go home with a certificate. It's a four-day event. But we're going to try to give you nuggets to take home, try to let you learn from each other, show each other what we're doing, because I always kind of giggle when folks say they're a drone expert or they're an expert of this technology. Because in the time that it took them to say that, someone else is out there doing it and doing it better and learning new things. And so anytime I see that on LinkedIn, I immediately kind of eye roll. I immediately kind of laugh because I've been out of the fire service since 2019. And my experiences, although they're good lessons learned are pretty much irrelevant in five years. That's how fast this stuff is changing. And how fast, you know, I was just on the phone with someone from Dallas police, and they're running 170 or 180 vehicular homicides a year in Dallas. And so they're mapping and filming every single one of those. So they're getting 180 real life reps every year, ready or not. And there's places that, you know, their whole career they won't fly 10. And so depending on your experience level, where you are, there's something for you. We'll take little nuggets from each other. We have good representation from across the country. FDNY is always there, Los Angeles Fire. We've got the Dallas BFW groups. I know we've got Colorado Center of Excellence is coming. So a lot of the players that you cross paths with at the FDIC and that IFC shows and IFF stuff like that will be there. And so it's a really unique four-day experience. Similar to some other shows but very different. You get your hands on, you get stick time, you bring your own drones, you fly your own drones. But then you can also check out and maybe fly the latest and greatest from the best vendors in the industry on a NIST lane.

[22:24] Kevin Sofen: I love it. I mean, I think most times when people go to shows, even at TSI, it was widely received as an extremely positive, valuable show. The Technology Summit International was a summit very focused on learning, two-way dialogue. It was great. But one of the biggest things people wanted is hands-on. I want to see the tech work. I mean, again, as much as we can talk about it, which is great, and sometimes roundtables are great, I want the whole, you know, the Caleb Holt phrase of burn it, break it, blow it up. I mean, sometimes we want to do that, and I think it's helpful to do that. And so, I mean, for someone that hasn't been, I haven't been until this year. I'm really excited that we'll be doing some live Smart Firefighting podcasts. But for someone that hasn't gone and that is maybe just starting a drone program, thinking about starting a drone program, doesn't know the first thing about robotics and is just kind of curious, why should that person consider attending this year?

[23:24] Preston Culver: So luckily, there's things for everyone in the kind of, I said ecosystem before, maybe that's not the right word, but it takes more than just program managers and pilots to get these programs off the ground, right? You have to have backing by your leadership. You have to have a purchasing person that understands what you're doing and why you need all these things and why you keep bugging them for batteries and props and different things. So getting your brass out there's a place for them. Purchasing people out there, get them out there, see what this technology is doing so when they see that come through, they really know what they're ordering, right? Whether it's the new pilot never flown before or the seasoned pilot who thinks they have nothing to gain, I promise you there's things that you'll learn out there and things you'll see that you hadn't thought of or are a new way to do what you're already doing better. for, you know, I almost challenge people that don't see the value to come to, right? There will be light bulbs going off all around you and a synergy of ideas and, you know, it's the same problems that the same groups are having, although they're changing, it's the same problems, all right? How do we write our SOPs? How do we implement NIST into our training? How do we train our team? How do we become operationally relevant with dispatch protocols? How do we join a multi UAS op, right? How do we log into ATAC? How do we, where's that dang Mike Mosserino from DroneSense and how do we get a demo, right? It's all, everybody's having the same issues on Teams whether they're new or old. And so we don't need to recreate the wheel or whatever silly phrase you wanna say. If it's happened, someone's done it before or they have the contact that'll help you, get through that little problem because that's really what it is just helping navigate all these kind of downfalls for these teams because there's just a million reasons for their bosses to say, oh, nevermind, you know, you're not going or you're not funded or that money I promised you, yeah, we need that to actually keep a firehouse open. So your little toys are cute, but you know, no money this year. So if you get any of those people that are in the process of making the team happen, get them out there because that's really how they see it, right? It's not just a parking lot demo. We're not just inviting a vendor to our command, our headquarters, having them pop up a drone, look around, zoom into a license plate, zoom out, flip onto thermal, go through the color palette and then be like, all right, you want to buy them? It's 30 grand. That doesn't provide the chief or the purchasing agent anything. But if you bring them out to the ranch and you get them dirty and you get them intermingling with the community, they'll start seeing like, oh, I get why we need that one. ah, I understand, you know, that's the reason for while they're asking for $50,000 when I thought $5,000 was enough for this program. So, you know, there's room for everybody and then if nothing else, it's a beautiful ranch in Central Texas. So the least amount of, you know, positive outcomes are that you get to come hang out in an absolutely gorgeous part of the world.

[26:31] Kevin Sofen: So if you're a hater, we want you there, especially. Yeah, bring it. Is there any hog hunting at this ranch?

[26:37] Preston Culver: Not during the event, but there are hogs aplenty and there is hunting that happens. It's definitely part of the inner circle family of the ranch type permissions, but.

[26:50] Kevin Sofen: I've seen it and heard and seen videos and pictures of all things hog hunt and being a Midwesterner, the only pigs we see are usually the ones within the crates and it's quote unquote domesticated, but I know down south there's, those hogs are for real.

[27:06] Preston Culver: Yeah, they're nasty down here. They don't taste as good, and they'll tear things up. So yeah, they're definitely around.

[27:13] Kevin Sofen: They're a thing. So you kind of touched on part of this, but I mean, from now it's the fourth year. I mean, sort of what's going to be maybe different, and also kind of like what is you did touch about some of the hands-on stick time. But as far as like the agenda in sort of format, just maybe touch on like what's maybe going to be different this year from previous years as well as what should people expect from you get there on that Monday, and then you've got some time outside, presentations, some hands-on demos. Walk me through a little bit about the agenda schedule stuff.

[27:50] Preston Culver: Yeah, so easy time to plug the website for anyone listening that wants to see exactly what I'm talking about, pxpsrobots.com is the website. And it has a video recap of last year's summit right at the beginning. And then you can click around facilities and look at the map and look at the different kind of structures that are out there that we operate around to really give you a better idea without seeing it in person what all I'm about to talk about. But yeah, so we call it a four day summit, but it's really three full days, just a half day, a full day, a full day and a half day. I think we can hang out Thursday longer, but that's usually kind of when the main crowd is there. So Monday morning is people filter in, We do kind of a later start. That way the local, we're central to Texas, but you can still drive five hours in all directions and still be in Texas. So for people that don't live here, that's kind of mind blowing, but we allow the state groups to get there that day. And then the people out of state can fly in Sunday night or Monday morning, but the vendors are getting set up, people are checking in, and then about noon or one o'clock we kick off and kind of have an introduction. I'll be leading the charge, blabbing on the mic, just explaining kind of what's out there and what the event is, but then we really kick off and we get going. We don't typically waste time sitting in seats. I know some shows keep people keep the butts in seats for a long time and provide high quality presentations, but that's not why we drove all the way out to the middle of Central Texas. So we have the facilities for presentations, but we like to get out and get dirty. So we'll kick people out and then it turns into kind of like a music festival type event where you can choose your course. So I know it's common now, but there's a schedule with multiple things going on all at once from the vendor presentation on the main stage from someone like we've got so far committed Skydio has given a presentation on the main stage or you can go over to the NIST lanes and learn about the open lanes and fly open lanes or you can go into the classroom, and maybe Greg from Pilot Institute is giving a... class on part 107. So, and then if none of that interests you, then typical show fashion, there'll be an exhibition hall or a tent where all the tables will be set up with all the vendors. So all the reps from all these companies will be there in person. And so you'll get immediate FaceTime, table talk. There's usually not a line. You're walking right up and talking to the reps from all these companies and talking about their latest product. So that's kind of the overall feel. And then we also roll in training evolution. So say at three o'clock on Monday at the tower, there will be an active shooter training session and we're not teaching active shooter. We're not, that's a whole class that could be taught for a long time and by people that know way more about it than us. We're just providing a scenario environment to get a good rep. So we will have live actors. We will have limited amount of information, say like a 911 call. So you show up, you're told X, Y, and Z. These are your parameters. This is your flight area. And then first team up, second team get ready. And we start rolling teams in like it's a real scenario. So not realistic in the sense that you might have three different agencies, but if it's an active shooter, you might have multiple responding agencies all coming in. So whether it's Boston Marathon or the Vegas shooting, or God forbid, whatever the next one is, now multiple agencies are responding. They all have these technologies. So how do we play together? That was the original kind of founding premise of this show was kind of a fly-in from the state of Texas regional groups to all come together, say, hey, we're all doing this, but you call it spinning up. I call it launching. You know, you call it a visual observer. I call it a looky-loo. Like, what are we all talking? So when we all show up, there's some understanding of expectations. So that was the whole purpose of this group and so, or of this event. So we still try to stick to that. And our scenarios are organic and flexible. And as teams walk up, we'll say, all right, first team, your battery's at 10%, bring it back. And then hotwash with the third team and tell them what you did and where to go next. And so just like a long-term call or long evolution, say in the fire service, like a hazmat call or something where multiple teams are kind of leapfrogging each other, we do that with the UAS team. So we start communication between organizations and then also utilizing command structure. There will be an event command structure with command and operations and an air boss and all the proctors will be under that and so we'll have radios and we communicate the airspace as if it's a natural disaster.

[32:43] Kevin Sofen: Man, I'm fired up and I know there's gonna be a lot of, again, I also kinda don't love the word thought leader but just practitioners and people that are doing it in the field that are sharing some of their best practices. One person I'm interested in, if they're gonna be there, a fellow NIST friend of yours who I met for the first time in December, Dr. Raymond Sheh from NIST. Any chance he's gonna be there?

[33:05] Preston Culver: Oh yeah, Raymond will be there. He's a good friend of the ranch.

[33:08] Kevin Sofen: One of the- He wore an epic cowboy hat at the TSI Summit and he just owned the show.

[33:13] Preston Culver: Yeah, I'm sure he'll be donning it's got more of a down under feel than a hog hunting Texas feel, but we accept all hats. Matt Eisenbarger from Freefly usually rocks one as well, but Raymond will be there. Raymond's actually gonna be there with kind of another event slash kind of thing that's going on with the NIST and AI and cyber and his new project that he's working on. So he'll be there with a bunch of, I think, grad students, speaking a little out of secondhand knowledge, But yeah, Raymond will definitely be there. He was instrumental in the project I'm working on. He's been working on it with Adam for years. Really big on the sensor testing side. And so, yeah, he's one of those guys that as soon as you talk to him, you immediately know where you stand in the center of intelligence. And as soon as I start talking to him, I'm like, yeah, I'm a firefighter, yep.

[34:13] Kevin Sofen: I love that guy. I mean, he just, he brings a lot of joy. And just asking a lot of good prompt questions to get you thinking. So Raymond, shout out to you, keep being you. I'm excited to see that. And then I guess a little bit of a pivot when we go to text robotics, that's me, early March. The football season's gonna be wrapped up. I'm putting you on the spot here. It's January 5th. What's your Super Bowl call? What's gonna happen?

[34:40] Preston Culver: Cowboys, duh.

[34:42] Kevin Sofen: Cowboys over who?

[34:44] Preston Culver: All, Cowboys over all.

[34:46] Kevin Sofen: Cowboys versus the world.

[34:47] Preston Culver: Every year, yep.

[34:49] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, well, I'm a Green Bay Packers fan, and we got the Chicago Bears this weekend. So we got a win to get in. And if we win, there's a pretty good chance we play the Cowboys. And Packers have broken. Both Cowboys and Packers have broken each other's hearts a few times over the years. So we'll see what happens. You never know.

[35:06] Preston Culver: Might be eating cheese this weekend.

[35:08] Kevin Sofen: Never know. Yeah, I mean, I'm for sure. Even though my wife says I'm lactose intolerant, I still love me some cheese.

[35:16] Preston Culver: Yeah, I would love to see it.

[35:17] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, we'll see. So any other kind of like final thoughts, parting wisdom from Preston as far as maybe even a mic drop kind of favorite quote, favorite question or challenge or any other kind of insights to kind of all things Texas Public Robotics Show and some of the stuff you did with NIST or general life, whatever it may be.

[35:38] Preston Culver: Yeah, nothing more than the show, starting with the show, is just a great chance to get out, I know with different kind of events happening over the last few years, people's opportunities to travel or get travel funded or to get around people has kind of become less and less. So it's a good chance to get back out and get around folks, get face to face. And really the big thing is just sharing, right? Learning from each other, listening, working with each other. Got a lot of silos in this industry that we get stuck in. And so, this NIST component that I'm involved in now as well as the TXPS robot show, has just really been a great opportunity to kind of close the loop of feedback, that gap between the end user and the folks making this technology. Because unfortunately, the public safety bucket, as far as how much money is there for these groups to go after, is small, and so the tech companies don't always lean public safety first. infrastructure or energy or oil and gas, and then, oh, prosumer, and then if it happens to work for the fire service, great. But we're not going to spend our time and money there and I don't blame them chasing the needs of public safety. So that's been a gap that this really fills, which I'm proud and happy to be a part of. What Adam Jacob and his team have done over the last 10, 15, 20 years on this project is remarkable. And I just, I pinch myself that I get to be one of four or five kind of full-timers on this team. And so if you're confused by it, come ask us questions. If you need more information, we'll drop the NIST website on the podcast, but it's all open source. So we want to share. We want everyone to be better and to make good purchasing decisions and to know how to train your pilots and everything is on there from how to set it up to what to order, how to cut it, how to build it, the score sheets to print, the sticker print files, and then our contact information. So if it still doesn't quite make sense, there's three of us that will pick up our phones, usually by the third ring, anytime, any day, any night. So we're there for these groups, all former pilots and former first responders. And so it's kind of our labor of love, but it's It's one of those fewer moves that affect more people, which is really exciting for me, versus the singular fire truck calls that we were doing that were helping those people that were on the other end of that 911 call. This is now kind of a bigger reach. And so really proud to be a part of this NIST project. And I'm excited about the upcoming Public Safety Robotics Summit because it's our little labor of love and our chance to showcase the beautiful Beverly Peak Ranch and have all our buddies out.

[38:28] Kevin Sofen: I love it, man. Well, you said you had to pinch yourself. I mean, it didn't happen by accident. It came from your hard work and dedication and passion. And I know everyone speaks very highly of you. I speak highly of you. And I'm grateful for the opportunity to come down this year and really see it firsthand. And likewise, with this podcast and this platform and some of their technology there, especially the Ford Bronco from Darlie, which will be a staple, continue to apply tech and see how change management can really evolve to embrace tech to help first responders do what they need to do. So kudos to you, Preston, and the rest of the team with Texas Robotics Summit and all things at NIST. So keep going. Keep doing it. I'm fired up for later this spring. And I look forward to maybe talking some smack, some football smack, and talking to shop, and seeing you very soon.

[39:15] Preston Culver: Likewise, brother. And same to you. It's nice to see that two years have passed, and you've done nothing but kick this thing into the next year. So continue your hard work on that side. It's nice seeing you cross paths at other shows and with people that we all know in the industry. And that's one thing I'm excited about, seeing you in Texas and seeing Mike and all the guys that we can all finally be in the same place at the same time.

[39:40] Kevin Sofen: Likewise. I actually don't know if we've ever met in person. We've talked so many times. No. I feel like we're besties. I might be catfishing you, for all I know.

[39:50] Preston Culver: Yeah, we're just digital millennial friends.

[39:53] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, I'm just an avatar.

[39:54] Preston Culver: yeah i generated yeah you'll see yeah you'll see if i exist when you come down here yeah and get you on some pigs.

[40:01] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, we'll see. You never know. I'm sure looking forward to it. All right Preston, well have a great rest of your day. Good football weekend ahead and we'll be talking soon.

[40:10] Preston Culver: All right, sounds good. Go Cowboys.

[40:13] Kevin Sofen: Go Pack. Thank you so much for listening to the Smart Firefighting Podcast today. If you enjoyed what you heard and got any value, please drop us a rating, leave us a comment, or reach out to us on social media. Have a great day and together we can advance the future of smart firefighting.