Unmanned Aerial Systems for Wildland and Forest Fires

Wildfires represent an important natural risk causing economic losses, human death and important environmental damage. In recent years, we witness an increase in fire intensity and frequency. Research has been conducted towards the development of dedicated solutions for wildland and forest fire assistance and fighting. Systems were proposed for the remote detection and tracking of fires. These systems have shown improvements in the area of efficient data collection and fire characterization within small scale environments. However, wildfires cover large areas making some of the proposed ground-based systems unsuitable for optimal coverage. To tackle this limitation, Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) were proposed. UAS have proven to be useful due to their maneuverability, allowing for the implementation of remote sensing, allocation strategies and task planning. They can provide a low-cost alternative for the prevention, detection and real-time support of firefighting. In this paper we review previous work related to the use of UAS in wildfires. Onboard sensor instruments, fire perception algorithms and coordination strategies are considered. In addition, we present some of the recent frameworks proposing the use of both aerial vehicles and Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UV) for a more efficient wildland firefighting strategy at a larger scale.Comment: A recent published version of this paper is available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/drones501001

THE NEXT GENERATION OF WILDLAND FIREFIGHTING TOOLS: USING UAV SWARMS FOR FIRE ATTACK

Wildland fires pose a direct threat to homeland security because of the severe personal, economic, and social stress they cause to those affected. As unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarms become more ubiquitous in use, they will likely find a place as a frontline firefighting aerial asset, increasing the operational pace of aerial suppression flights and consequently increasing the safety of firefighters. This thesis explored the concept of using UAV swarms as a method for fire attack by comparing theoretical swarms to a conventional aerial asset within a realistic fire scenario and then using a systems engineering approach to define pressure points for implementing UAV swarms in the wildland space. The findings of this research support continued development of UAV swarms and clearly define areas that must be addressed before implementing large-scale UAV swarm flights. The firefighting UAV swarm system shows great promise due to its relative portability and ability to provide an aerial firefighting option to areas without ready access to conventional firefighting aircraft. It will be critical, however, to address logistical and communications constraints of UAV swarm systems before implementation to ensure positive outcomes.Civilian, Portland Fire and RescueApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

A survey on robotic technologies for forest firefighting: Applying drone swarms to improve firefighters’ efficiency and safety

Forest firefighting missions encompass multiple tasks related to prevention, surveillance, and extinguishing. This work presents a complete survey of firefighters on the current problems in their work and the potential technological solutions. Additionally, it reviews the efforts performed by the academy and industry to apply different types of robots in the context of firefighting missions. Finally, all this information is used to propose a concept of operation for the comprehensive application of drone swarms in firefighting. The proposed system is a fleet of quadcopters that individually are only able to visit waypoints and use payloads, but collectively can perform tasks of surveillance, mapping, monitoring, etc. Three operator roles are defined, each one with different access to information and functions in the mission: Mission commander, team leaders, and team members. These operators take advantage of virtual and augmented reality interfaces to intuitively get the information of the scenario and, in the case of the mission commander, control the drone swarmThis research received no external fundin

Using a Semi-autonomous Drone Swarm to Support Wildfire Management – A Concept of Operations Development Study

This paper provides insights into a human factors-oriented Concept of Operations (ConOps), which can be applied for future semi-autonomous drone swarms to support the management of wildfires. The results provide, firstly, an overview of the current practices to manage wildfires in Finland. Secondly, some of the current challenges and future visions about drone usage in a wildfire situation are presented. Third, a description of the key elements of the developed future ConOps for operating a drone swarm to support the combat of wildfires is given. The ConOps has been formulated based on qualitative research, which included a literature review, seven subject matter expert interviews and a workshop with 40 professionals in the domain. Many elements of this ConOps may also be applied to a variety of other swarm robotics operations than only wildfire management. Finally, as the development of the ConOps is still in its first stage, several further avenues for research and development are proposed

WATER-BASED MITIGATION TECHNIQUES AND NETWORK INTEGRATION TO COUNTER DRONE SWARMS

Potential and current U.S. adversaries are purchasing and deploying commercial small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) in networked swarms. These swarms can be used for intelligence collection and reconnaissance, and have the potential to be weaponized as well. Additionally, the unlawful, but probably not malicious, activity of civilian UAS (drone) operators is of increasing concern. More specifically, there is increased risk to naval assets while in constrained environments, such as harbor transit, where both navigation and weaponized responses are serious concerns. This thesis uses the scenario of protecting a U.S. Navy destroyer entering and exiting a harbor to develop a sUAS mitigation procedure based on existing firefighting and counter-piracy technologies. The proposed procedure includes a communications plan and can be implemented almost immediately using existing civilian and military assets. Additional recommendations to improve the performance of such procedures are provided.CRUSARRRTOLieutenant, United States NavyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

A Review of the Operational Use of UAS in Public Safety Emergency Incidents

The domain of public safety in the form of search \& rescue, wildland firefighting, structure firefighting, and law enforcement operations have drawn great interest in the field of aerospace engineering, human-robot teaming, autonomous systems, and robotics. However, a divergence exists in the assumptions made in research and how state-of-the-art technologies may realistically transition into an operational capacity. To aid in the alignment between researchers, technologists, and end users, we aim to provide perspective on how small Uncrewed Aerial Systems (sUAS) have been applied in 114 real world incidents as part of a technical rescue team from 2016 to 2021. We highlight the main applications, integration, tasks, and challenges of employing UAS within five primary use cases including searches, evidence collection, SWAT, wildland firefighting, and structure firefighting. Within these use cases, key incidents are featured that provide perspective on the evolving and dynamic nature of UAS tasking during an operation. Finally, we highlight key technical directions for improving the utilization and efficiency of employing aerial technology in all emergency types.Comment: Accepted to the International Conference of Unmanned Aerial Systems (ICUAS) 202

System Architectures for Cooperative Teams of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Interacting Physically with the Environment

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have become quite a useful tool for a wide range of applications, from inspection & maintenance to search & rescue, among others. The capabilities of a single UAV can be extended or complemented by the deployment of more UAVs, so multi-UAV cooperative teams are becoming a trend. In that case, as di erent autopilots, heterogeneous platforms, and application-dependent software components have to be integrated, multi-UAV system architectures that are fexible and can adapt to the team's needs are required. In this thesis, we develop system architectures for cooperative teams of UAVs, paying special attention to applications that require physical interaction with the environment, which is typically unstructured. First, we implement some layers to abstract the high-level components from the hardware speci cs. Then we propose increasingly advanced architectures, from a single-UAV hierarchical navigation architecture to an architecture for a cooperative team of heterogeneous UAVs. All this work has been thoroughly tested in both simulation and eld experiments in di erent challenging scenarios through research projects and robotics competitions. Most of the applications required physical interaction with the environment, mainly in unstructured outdoors scenarios. All the know-how and lessons learned throughout the process are shared in this thesis, and all relevant code is publicly available.Los vehículos aéreos no tripulados (UAVs, del inglés Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) se han convertido en herramientas muy valiosas para un amplio espectro de aplicaciones, como inspección y mantenimiento, u operaciones de rescate, entre otras. Las capacidades de un único UAV pueden verse extendidas o complementadas al utilizar varios de estos vehículos simultáneamente, por lo que la tendencia actual es el uso de equipos cooperativos con múltiples UAVs. Para ello, es fundamental la integración de diferentes autopilotos, plataformas heterogéneas, y componentes software -que dependen de la aplicación-, por lo que se requieren arquitecturas multi-UAV que sean flexibles y adaptables a las necesidades del equipo. En esta tesis, se desarrollan arquitecturas para equipos cooperativos de UAVs, prestando una especial atención a aplicaciones que requieran de interacción física con el entorno, cuya naturaleza es típicamente no estructurada. Primero se proponen capas para abstraer a los componentes de alto nivel de las particularidades del hardware. Luego se desarrollan arquitecturas cada vez más avanzadas, desde una arquitectura de navegación para un único UAV, hasta una para un equipo cooperativo de UAVs heterogéneos. Todo el trabajo ha sido minuciosamente probado, tanto en simulación como en experimentos reales, en diferentes y complejos escenarios motivados por proyectos de investigación y competiciones de robótica. En la mayoría de las aplicaciones se requería de interacción física con el entorno, que es normalmente un escenario en exteriores no estructurado. A lo largo de la tesis, se comparten todo el conocimiento adquirido y las lecciones aprendidas en el proceso, y el código relevante está publicado como open-source

Influencing Factors for Use of Unmanned Aerial Systems in Support of Aviation Accident and Emergency Response

The purpose of this research paper was to examine the influencing factors associated with the use of unmanned aerial system (UAS) technology to support aviation accident and emergency response. The ability of first responders to react to an emergency is dependent on the quality, accuracy, timeliness, and usability of information. With aviation accidents such as the Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crash at San Francisco International Airport, the ability to sense and communicate the location of victims may reduce the potential for accidental passenger death. Furthermore, the ability to obtain information en-route to an accident may also to assist to reduce overall response and coordination time of first responders (e.g., Aviation Rescue and Firefighting [ARFF]). By identifying and examining current and potential practices, capabilities, and technology (e.g., human-machine-interface [HMI], human factors, tools, and capability modifiers) a more comprehensive model of the influencing factors is established to further support the growing body of knowledge (i.e., safety, human computer interaction, human-robot systems, socio-economical systems, service and public sector systems, and technological forecasting). A series of recommendations regarding the technology and application are provided to support future development or adaptation of regulations, policies, or future research. --from the article

Meta-Analysis of Public Acceptance of Unmanned Aircraft Systems in the United States

Automated and unmanned systems are rapidly revolutionizing every aspect of military, commercial, and public use operations in the United States. While this technology serves effectively in dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks, the rapid introduction of unmanned technologies into society has generated intense debate about their ethical, moral, and legal use. Specifically, the rise in the development and application of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) has created significant public discord. As public acceptance of UAS plays a major role in the regulatory decisions that allow for expanded use in commercial and public use applications, it is critically important to understand the complexities involved in the public acceptance of UAS. A meta-analysis of archival data was conducted to identify a possible relationship between UAS intended missions and their acceptability within the public. Compiled survey research indicated that search and rescue (SAR) applications are the most publicly accepted intended missions. Additionally, a chi-square test of independence found evidence of a relationship between intended mission and public acceptance, with commercial and non-law enforcement public use having the highest levels of public acceptance. Recommendations include increasing the public’s knowledge and awareness of UAS through an iPhone Operating System (IOS) device application, and removing “drone” from future survey terminology

Carnegie Mellon Team Tartan: Mission-level Robustness with Rapidly Deployed Autonomous Aerial Vehicles in the MBZIRC 2020

For robotics systems to be used in high risk, real-world situations, they have to be quickly deployable and robust to environmental changes, under-performing hardware, and mission subtask failures. Robots are often designed to consider a single sequence of mission events, with complex algorithms lowering individual subtask failure rates under some critical constraints. Our approach is to leverage common techniques in vision and control and encode robustness into mission structure through outcome monitoring and recovery strategies, aided by a system infrastructure that allows for quick mission deployments under tight time constraints and no central communication. We also detail lessons in rapid field robotics development and testing. Systems were developed and evaluated through real-robot experiments at an outdoor test site in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, as well as in the 2020 Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge. All competition trials were completed in fully autonomous mode without RTK-GPS. Our system led to 4th place in Challenge 2 and 7th place in the Grand Challenge, and achievements like popping five balloons (Challenge 1), successfully picking and placing a block (Challenge 2), and dispensing the most water autonomously with a UAV of all teams onto an outdoor, real fire (Challenge 3).Comment: 28 pages, 26 figures. To appear in Field Robotics, Special Issues on MBZIRC 202