The drone fleet that launches the moment the sea floor feels the wave.
A weather-hardened, high-visibility aerial platform — painted red and yellow to be seen from far away — that maps evacuation routes, broadcasts warnings, and surveys the coast. It deploys automatically when a DART station reports a change in seafloor pressure.
Select a component on the model or a chip to see what it does and what it's made of.
DART — NOAA's Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis — uses a seafloor bottom-pressure recorder to sense the weight of the water column above it. When a passing wave shifts that pressure past a set threshold, the station jumps from routine reporting into event mode. TRITON listens for that jump: the same signal that warns forecasters becomes the trigger that puts the fleet in the air.
TRITON's LiDAR and radar don't just build a map for responders — they resolve into something anyone can use. Each clear corridor to high ground becomes a standard Google Maps walking route, so the survey a drone flies overhead turns into turn-by-turn directions in a survivor's hand. When TRITON spots a blocked road, it reroutes and the link updates.
Routes open in Google Maps — already on most phones — with turn-by-turn walking directions to high ground.
A QR code puts a route on any phone in seconds — printed on signage, held up at shelters, or shown on screens.
The same link works on phones, laptops and public displays, and can be texted, broadcast, or read aloud over radio.
The aircraft that maps a coastline in calm weather is the same one that survives the storm, warns the people in its path, and helps find them afterward.
TRITON sits between the DART network and the agencies that act on it. The same survey becomes a live feed for police and fire dispatch, a shared map for the emergency operations center, GIS-ready data for the state and FEMA, and walking directions for the public — pushed to all of them at once, over the systems they already use.
Feeds directly into Computer-Aided Dispatch and the EOC's existing GIS, so police, fire and EMS see TRITON inside the tools they already use — no new console to learn.
Exports GeoTIFF, LAS and shapefiles, streams live video to command, and hands verified data to the authority that issues IPAWS and Wireless Emergency Alerts.
Police, fire, EMS and emergency managers watch the same live map, routes and drone positions in real time — every agency working from the same truth.
Fly the drone, sound the alarm, and help everyone reach high ground before the timer runs out.
Fly TRITON over each person to sound the alarm — they'll head for high ground. Get everyone to the hill before time runs out!
Use the arrow keys on a computer, or drag your finger on a phone or tablet, to fly TRITON.
Notional design targets for the TRITON-1 platform.