Cooperative forest fire surveillance using a team of small unmanned air vehicles

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to explore the feasibility of using multiple low-altitude, short endurance (LASE) unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) to cooperatively monitor and track the propagation of large forest fires. A real-time algorithm for tracking the perimeter of a fire with an on-board infrared sensor is developed. Using this algorithm, we develop a decentralized multiple-UAV approach to monitoring the perimeter of the fire. The UAVs are assumed to have limited communication and sensing range. The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated in simulation using a 6 DOF dynamic model for the UAV and numerical propagation model for the forest fire. Salient features of the approach include the ability to monitor a changing fire perimeter, the ability to systematically add and remove UAVs from the team, and the ability to supply time-critical information to forest fire fighters.

On redundancy, efficiency, and robustness in coverage for multiple robots

“…This result relies on an assumption that robots which fail do not block live robots. While this is an obvious concern with unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), it is actually an assumption that is satisfied in applications of coverage to unmanned aerial vehicles [3,10]. PROOF.…”

Controlling stochastic growth processes on lattices: Wildfire management with robotic fire extinguishers

“…In order to develop insights to control the growth of wildfire, we take a theoretical approach to the problem and begin by modeling the wildfire as a stochastic growth process on lattices. Although the use of UAVs for tracking, monitoring and patrolling environmental boundaries has been widely studied in the past (see, for example, [4]- [10]), to the best of our knowledge, a detailed study on the effectiveness and subsequent policies for the UAVs operating in stochastic environments, for instance, modeled as growth processes on lattices, has not been considered in the robotics literature. This type of micro modeling considers each tree individually, and it is This research was partially funded by the National Science Foundation through Grant #1350685.…”

Automated UAV tasks for search and surveillance

“…Not only that, but the condition of those in distress degrades and the probability of their survival decreases the longer the search takes. Similar concerns exist for wilderness search and rescue operations, which may require thousands of hours of search over large, rugged, and remote terrains [2], and for forest fire suppression, where persistent surveillance and monitoring is needed to guide fire fighting efforts and ensure fire fighters do not unknowingly enter high risk regions [3].…”