EBERSWALDE, Germany (AP) — A company that specialises 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 operates alongside a fire detection system previously developed by the company, which is already utilised 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 the Silvaguard drone from authorities.
Details regarding the fire, such as geographic coordinates, video footage, and infrared images, will subsequently be transmitted to the firefighters, allowing them to determine the fire’s location and size, thereby assisting in assessing the number of firefighters needed for deployment.
“When it comes to wildfires, time is of the essence, you cannot be fast enough,” Brinkschulte said.
