Evaluating and operationalizing unmanned aircraft for wildland fire use

Abstract:

Many potential uses of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) related to wildland fire research and operations have been demonstrated, but the vast majority of these have been proof-of-concept or one-time flights. Scientists, practitioners, and firefighting agencies look forward to the widespread adoption of this powerful technology and its regular use. Similarly, the UAS industry awaits opportunities for commercialization. Our collaboration brings together UAS industry, research and management agencies, and universities in the USA and Canada to investigate the perceived effectiveness of UAS for wildland fire use, and the factors affecting their commercial-scale employment. Our current and future activities include market research, training and technology transfer, and deployment of UAS over fires to promote development of sensors as well as their safe integration into fire operations. We will present initial results, and as a part of our presentation we also invite participation of the AGU community for planned future project phases. We anticipate that the outcomes of our work will be useful to potential users who are unfamiliar with UAS, and to researchers and practitioners with experience or an interest in their use in fire and related natural-resource disciplines.