Students from the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI) have developed a system for detecting forest fires. It consists of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and charging towers, the university's press service reported.
The drone used in the system features a durable and lightweight body made of composite materials, making it resistant to adverse weather conditions. Two UAVs will be needed to detect fires over a large area.
They are planned to be charged using autonomous towers powered by renewable energy sources, equipped with a wind generator and solar panels. According to the project authors' estimates, the stations can be located at a distance of about 15 km from each other.
The drone will create a map of the area and automatically build a route using high-speed lidars and GPS. Built-in thermal imagers will detect areas with exceeded temperature indicators and localize the fire in the forest.
The limitation of charge and flight time of drones is one of the main problems that hinders the more effective implementation and application of this technology. Our project is able to solve this problem by simultaneously using several drones and charging stations.
The data obtained by the system will be sent to the fire service for further fire suppression.
Earlier, www1.ru reported that thousands of drones will extinguish Russian forest fires.
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