Abstract
Prescribed fires have many benefits, but existing ignition methods are dangerous, costly, or inefficient. This paper presents the design and evaluation of a micro-UAS that can start a prescribed fire from the air, while being operated from a safe distance and without the costs associated with aerial ignition from a manned aircraft. We evaluate the performance of the system in extensive controlled tests indoors. We verify the capabilities of the system to perform interior ignitions, a normally dangerous task, through the ignition of two prescribed fires alongside wildland firefighters.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by NSF 1638099, NSF 1539070, and NRI-USDA-2013-67021-20947. We are thankful to the NPS, DOI, FAA, and especially appreciate the efforts of Loess Canyons Rangeland Alliance, Homestead National Monument, and all of the firefighters for letting us learn and participate in their efforts. We would also like to thank Becca Horzewski and Dr. Brittany Duncan of the Nimbus Lab. The NE Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit is jointly supported by a cooperative agreement between the U.S. Geological Survey, the NE Game and Parks Commission, UNL, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Wildlife Management Institute. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
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Beachly, E. et al. (2017). A micro-UAS to Start Prescribed Fires. In: Kulić, D., Nakamura, Y., Khatib, O., Venture, G. (eds) 2016 International Symposium on Experimental Robotics. ISER 2016. Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics, vol 1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50115-4_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50115-4_2
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