SMART WATER PAYLOAD FOR AUTONOMOUS WILDFIRE SUPPRESSION

Abstract

The increasing intensity of wildfires in recent years due to various human and environmental factors has caused billions of dollars in economic damage, health concerns, and has strained the resources necessary to extinguish these fires. Traditional firefighting methods typically involve transporting and deploying thousands of gallons of suppressants for a single drop, requiring substantial energy and labor to achieve fire suppression. There is an urgent need to find innovative suppression strategies to combat the increasing intensity of wildfires. This thesis presents the development of an autonomous suppression system with the intention of adapting it aboard an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platform. Unlike existing suppression methods, this system drops a lightweight payload of water to accurately target an incipient wildfire and suppresses it before it grows exponentially. With only 8.5 kg of water, the system is able to suppress a target fire of up to 0.6 MW in size. It is concluded that the ideal delivery strategy is to rupture the payload container above the fire and allow the water to disperse. The smart water payload was then developed and tested to autonomously rupture at the desired burst height by preprogramming a delay.