AI-Powered Drone System Aims to Revolutionize Wildfire Detection and Monitoring

An AI-based drone that speeds up the detection and monitoring of wildfires is presented in Germany

EBERSWALDE, Germany (AP) -- A company that specializes in early wildfire detection has developed a new, AI-based drone it says will help speed up the detection, location and monitoring of fires. The Silvaguard drone by Dryard Networks was presented Thursday in Eberswalde outside of Berlin as wildfires driven by extreme heat and climate change are becoming a more common, often deadly phenomenon around the globe. The drone will deliver infrared images, among other things, and works in combination with a fire detection system that the company developed earlier and that's already being used in several countries. The fire detection system, called Silvanet, is designed to detect wildfires at the smoldering stage using solar-powered gas sensors connected via a wireless network. Each gas sensor can protect an area the size of a football field and be attached to a tree. The plan is that once Silvanet detects a fire, it will trigger a nearby Silvaguard drone to fly to the location and provide detailed images. "Today we saw a combination of Silvanet -- the solar powered gas sensors that detected the fire within minutes -- with Silvaguard, the first prototype of an autonomous, an AI enabled drone that we dispatched in response to a fire," said Carsten Brinkschulte, the CEO and co-founder, Dryad Networks. The drone "flew autonomously to the location of the sensor, detecting the fire, and delivered overhead infrared and optical video from the point of fire," he said of the newly developed drone. The company is still waiting to get the go-ahead for the commercial use of Silvaguard drone from authorities. The information about the fire, including geographic coordinates, video and infrared images, will then be sent to the firefighters who will then know where the fire is spreading and how big it is, which will help them know how many firefighters need to be deployed. "When it comes to wildfires, time is of the essence, you cannot be fast enough," Brinkschulte said.

An AI-based drone that speeds up the detection and monitoring of wildfires is presented in Germany

EBERSWALDE, Germany (AP) -- A company that specializes in early wildfire detection has developed a new, AI-based drone it says will help speed up the detection, location and monitoring of fires. The Silvaguard drone by Dryard Networks was presented Thursday in Eberswalde outside of Berlin as wildfires driven by extreme heat and climate change are becoming a more common, often deadly phenomenon around the globe. The drone will deliver infrared images, among other things, and works in combination with a fire detection system that the company developed earlier and that's already being used in several countries. The fire detection system, called Silvanet, is designed to detect wildfires at the smoldering stage using solar-powered gas sensors connected via a wireless network. Each gas sensor can protect an area the size of a football field and be attached to a tree. The plan is that once Silvanet detects a fire, it will trigger a nearby Silvaguard drone to fly to the location and provide detailed images. "Today we saw a combination of Silvanet -- the solar powered gas sensors that detected the fire within minutes -- with Silvaguard, the first prototype of an autonomous, an AI enabled drone that we dispatched in response to a fire," said Carsten Brinkschulte, the CEO and co-founder, Dryad Networks. The drone "flew autonomously to the location of the sensor, detecting the fire, and delivered overhead infrared and optical video from the point of fire," he said of the newly developed drone. The company is still waiting to get the go-ahead for the commercial use of Silvaguard drone from authorities. The information about the fire, including geographic coordinates, video and infrared images, will then be sent to the firefighters who will then know where the fire is spreading and how big it is, which will help them know how many firefighters need to be deployed. "When it comes to wildfires, time is of the essence, you cannot be fast enough," Brinkschulte said.

An AI-based drone that speeds up the detection and monitoring of wildfires is presented in Germany

EBERSWALDE, Germany -- A company that specializes in early wildfire detection has developed a new, AI-based drone it says will help speed up the detection, location and monitoring of fires. The Silvaguard drone by Dryard Networks was presented Thursday in Eberswalde outside of Berlin as wildfires driven by extreme heat and climate change are becoming a more common, often deadly phenomenon around the globe. The drone will deliver infrared images, among other things, and works in combination with a fire detection system that the company developed earlier and that's already being used in several countries. The fire detection system, called Silvanet, is designed to detect wildfires at the smoldering stage using solar-powered gas sensors connected via a wireless network. Each gas sensor can protect an area the size of a football field and be attached to a tree. The plan is that once Silvanet detects a fire, it will trigger a nearby Silvaguard drone to fly to the location and provide detailed images. "Today we saw a combination of Silvanet -- the solar powered gas sensors that detected the fire within minutes -- with Silvaguard, the first prototype of an autonomous, an AI enabled drone that we dispatched in response to a fire," said Carsten Brinkschulte, the CEO and co-founder, Dryad Networks. The drone "flew autonomously to the location of the sensor, detecting the fire, and delivered overhead infrared and optical video from the point of fire," he said of the newly developed drone. The company is still waiting to get the go-ahead for the commercial use of Silvaguard drone from authorities. The information about the fire, including geographic coordinates, video and infrared images, will then be sent to the firefighters who will then know where the fire is spreading and how big it is, which will help them know how many firefighters need to be deployed. "When it comes to wildfires, time is of the essence, you cannot be fast enough," Brinkschulte said.

AI-powered drones track down fires in German forests

AFP - Inside a green orb planted in the German countryside is a high-tech aid to prevent wildfires that have grown more common and destructive with rising global temperatures. The installation, resembling a giant golf ball covered in solar panels, is the hangar for an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered drone that its developer hopes one day will be able to sniff out and extinguish new blazes in minutes. "Fires are spreading much faster and more aggressively than in the past. That also means we have to react more quickly," Chief Executive Officer of the German firm Dryad Carsten Brinkschulte told AFP at a demonstration of the technology outside Berlin. Once a rarity, the German capital has to get used to more wildfires. Flames ripped through a forest on the city's western edge in the midst of a 2022 heatwave that saw several wildfires spring up in Germany. The sort of tinderbox conditions which promote blazes - where heat, drought and strong winds dry out the landscape - have increased with climate change. Wildfires have reached the point where they were "basically unstoppable", said senior wildfire management expert Lindon Pronto at the European Forest Institute. That is why action is needed to develop tools to "address fire in the prevention phase, during the operational phase, and also post-fire", said Pronto. Dryad is in the running with 29 other teams from around the globe for a multi-million-dollar prize to develop the ability to autonomously put out fires within 10 minutes. During Dryad's demonstration last week - the first for a computer-steered wildfire detection drone according to the company - chemicals in smoke from burning wood were picked up by sensors distributed in the forest. The signal was relayed back to the company's platform which released the drone from the orb. The unit rose above the trees, charting a zig-zag course to track down the precise location and extent of the fire. Firefighters using the information collected by the drone would be able "to respond much more efficiently and quickly and prevent a disaster", Brinkschulte said. Dryad eventually hopes to have the drone descend below the canopy and put out the fire using a novel technology: a "sonic cannon" blasting low-frequency sound waves at the right pressure to suppress small fires. An experimental acoustic suppression method, if it can be realised, would save the drone from carrying "large amounts of heavy water", making the unit more nimble and effective, according to Brinkschulte. Technologies like Dryad's are a step towards putting out fires "without putting people's lives in danger", said a native Californian Pronto, where recent wildfires have had a devastating impact. Huge blazes in Los Angeles in January killed 29 people, razed more than 10,000 homes and caused some USD250 billion (EUR231 billion) in damage, according to estimates by the private meteorological firm AccuWeather. The greatest benefits of an autonomous fire prevention system would be in areas where "civilisation meets nature", Brinkschulte said. Such crossover zones are the most vulnerable to man-made wildfires and "where the risk to life and limb is naturally highest". The company hopes to bring the drone to market in 2026, with the first deployment likely to be outside Europe. "These systems still need to have the regulatory framework to be able to operate commercially," Brinkschulte said, adding that Dryad was aiming for deployment in Europe in the "coming years". A couple of kinks need to be worked out before then, however. The first attempt to respond to the dummy fire on Thursday was held up by a faulty GPS signal.