Smokey comes of age: unmanned aerial systems for fire management

Abstract

During the past century, fire management has focused on techniques both to protect human communities from catastrophic wildfire and to maintain fire‐dependent ecological systems. However, despite a large and increasing allocation of resources and personnel to achieve these goals, fire management objectives at regional to global scales are not being met. Current fire management techniques are clearly inadequate for the challenges faced by fire managers, and technological innovations are needed. Advances in unmanned aerial systems (UAS) technology provide opportunities for innovation in fire management and science. In many countries, fire management organizations are beginning to explore the potential of UAS for monitoring fires. We have taken the next step and developed a prototype that can precisely ignite fires as part of wildfire suppression tactics or prescribed fires (fire intentionally ignited within predetermined conditions to reduce hazardous fuels, improve habitat, or mitigate for large wildfires). We discuss the potential for these technologies to benefit fire management activities, while acknowledging the sizeable sociopolitical barriers that prevent their immediate broad application.

Co-Regulated Consensus of Cyber-Physical Resources in Multi-Agent Unmanned Aircraft Systems

“…We selected α F 1 = 0.1 s 2 • C −1 and α F 2 = 0.1 s 3 parameters for Equation (8) and β P 1 = 1500 s −1 • C −1 and β P 2 = 1 s −1 parameters for Equation (11) to simulate the system shown in the Figure 2. The difference between the individual temperature measurements and the shared temperature caused the frequency controller in Equation (8) to apply a negative control input to Equation (7). As a result, the time period to communicate, T i [k + 1], decreased, which in turns increased the frequency of the communication, as shown in the "Frequency (Hz)" plot in Figure 2.…”

Using unmanned aerial vehicles to sample aquatic ecosystems

“…The next‐generation of UAVs will come closer to the environment and collect more diverse sensor data and samples (Detweiler et al ; Ore et al ; Twidwell et al ). Our newly developed UAV method improved effectiveness of field measurement and data accuracy by reducing sampling time, efforts and disturbances, which, in turn, outperformed fixed sensor based and manual readings.…”

Measuring rehabilitation responses to fire using transects and remote sensing

“…It is clear that UAV platforms will play an increasingly important role in the future of fire management. Already there are UAVs that are being used to provide active fire information (Wing, Burnett and Sessions, 2014;Gonçalves et al, 2016;Twidwell et al, 2016) and this study demonstrates that UAV data can measure fire severity and inform management of site impacts and the recovery of burnt landscapes. Improvements in sensor spectral characterisation (e.g.…”

“…UAVs have been deployed with 'hot spot' thermal sensors that deliver near real-time remote sensing metrics to map dynamic fire perimeters and monitor the outbreak of spotfires. UAV technologies can provide estimations of fire behaviour such as rate of spread, fireline intensity and fire trajectory to assist with onground decision making (Ambrosia et al, 2011;Merino et al, 2012;Wing, Burnett and Sessions, 2014;Twidwell et al, 2016). In the future, UAV technology is likely to be deployed extensively whenever large fires occur (Twidwell et al, 2016) and UAVs are already demonstrating their potential to save lives.…”

“…UAV technologies can provide estimations of fire behaviour such as rate of spread, fireline intensity and fire trajectory to assist with onground decision making (Ambrosia et al, 2011;Merino et al, 2012;Wing, Burnett and Sessions, 2014;Twidwell et al, 2016). In the future, UAV technology is likely to be deployed extensively whenever large fires occur (Twidwell et al, 2016) and UAVs are already demonstrating their potential to save lives. For example, in early 2015, active fire maps produced by a small quadcopter platform at a fire in Western Australia were credited with saving up to 100 homes (Werner, 2015).…”