Wildfire Detection and Communication–Aerospace Applications–Trade Study

Abstract

Wildfires have increased in frequency, duration, and intensity worldwide. Climate change, drought, and other factors have not only increased susceptibility to wildfires, but have also increased the duration of the season. There are a number of factors affecting wildfires: detection, speed of communication/response time, resources/politics/climate change/infrastructure to fight fires, and prevention education. A wildfire doubles in size and intensity every 3 to 5 minutes and response times tend to be 10 to 15 minutes at best. The goal of the trade analysis is to arrive at a cost‐effective and robust performance system which can be operated at the county level with minimal infrastructure to mitigate the menacing problem of forest wildfires. The approach will be a disciplined systems engineering approach to objectively arrive at the best solution for detection and communication of wildfires, having analyzed the measures of effectiveness (MOEs) for all critical requirements for a technologically diverse set of solutions. Though the analysis is still at a very early stage and the outcome could change as additional details are developed, due diligence was exercised in the evaluation of parameters such as detection time, total operations cost, and operational flexibility, to name a few. Early trade‐off results indicate that the lead concept is a rotor‐wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) concept, utilizing a rotorcraft configuration which could be outfitted with a remote‐sensing payload compliment based on light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology with associated functional equipment such as global positioning systems (GPS) and inertial measurement units (IMU). The UAV would be semiautonomous, launched from and remotely controlled by an operator in the general area of interest. Upon arriving at this area of interest, the UAV would then fly a flight plan autonomously to collect and communicate data to a base station to be used to direct wildfire mitigation services in the event of a positive detection.

Integrated Systems Architectural Modeling with Architectural Trade Study of a UAV Surface‐less Flight Control Systems for Wildfire Detection and Communication utilizing MBSAP

“…Figure 3 (Part a and Part b) shows the primary elements of the enterprise or System of Systems (SoS), including participating systems and their domains/subsystems. (Part b) Figure 3: Wildfire UAV Flight Mission of the Context System Notes: [1] The top figure (Part a) demonstrates the SOI to be the SFC System. Elements under trade are part of the SFC System, marked in white icons.…”

“…From the aircraft perspective, fuel efficiency and increased availability of SFC support the specific application of the UAV's wildfire detection and mitigation capability. Notes: [1] The SFC Operational Modes are in the grey box of the Use Case diagram.…”

“…The research paper, "Aerodynamic Investigations on a Generic Fan-in-Wing Configuration" [4] by Thouault, Gologan, Adams focuses on aerodynamics of FIW for lift and drag. [1] An L/D have been calculated from "Aerodynamic Investigations on a Generic Fan-in-Wing Configuration" [4] and applied to Wildfire UAV calculation [1].…”

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In this paper, we report our progress on integrating a model-based system engineering methodology with a system architectural trade study applied to flight control systems of a locally owned and operated, cost effective Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) design utilizing the concepts of Model-Based Systems Architecture Processes (MBSAP). The primary objective of the UAV is to monitor wildfires and to gather information and to provide surveillance data for predicting and preventing wildfires [1] . We describe our experience with a holistic approach to architect flight controls (the System-of-Interest), in a way that is tightly coupled with high-level stakeholder needs and concerns, operational scenarios, (normal, inadvertent, and mis-) use cases, Context System, and Enabling Systems.Several architectural variants of the Surface-less Flight Controls (SFC) were traded.

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“…Figure15: Impacts of Open FIW and Closed FIW/No FIW Notes:[1] An L/D have been calculated from "Aerodynamic Investigations on a Generic Fan-in-Wing Configuration"[4] and applied to Wildfire UAV calculation[1].…”